


Little Things Become Big Things

by TheUsualSuspect



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: BoyxBoy, Homosexuality, M/M, Possible Gay Smut, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-08
Updated: 2016-12-18
Packaged: 2018-06-01 00:29:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 22,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6493822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheUsualSuspect/pseuds/TheUsualSuspect
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What starts off as a small thing in a hotel in Sydney, Australia, ends up being exploited by the media on the other side of the world.<br/>When you start to have feelings for your very straight band mate, that aren't exactly platonic, and meet up with someone from your past, you'll wish for that one drunken night in the hotel back, and wish you'd played your cards differently.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1: Late

**Author's Note:**

> First One Direction fanfiction ever, please be fair judges of my work. This is set as thought they didn't go on 'break' and were currently touring their latest album.  
> Ideas for future chapters are welcome.  
> This chapter is shorter than my normal length, I just want to know if anyone will actually read this, and I promise it gets better next chapter.

“They know it’s twenty minutes until we’re on,” Liam stressed to Niall.  
“They know, they’re probably just getting some air before show time,” Niall replied in attempts to comfort Liam.  
“You’d’ve thought someone would’ve seen them go, but they just slipped out,” Liam continued.  
“We have ten minutes before we can actually start to worry,” Niall said reassuringly.  
“Okay,” Liam said as though trying to reassure himself instead of actually believing Niall’s words.

Harry and Louis had disappeared whilst Liam and Niall were in hair and make-up; they could now be anywhere in the entire building. Miraculously no one had any idea where they had gone because apparently keeping an eye on their schedules was more important than keeping an eye on their performers.

“We can just beat the shit out of them with pillows later,” Niall adds trying to make light of the situation.  
“Only if they come out of hiding,” Liam replied bitterly, his accent thick.  
“Who says they’re hiding, maybe they just went to the toilet.”  
Liam considered this as a plausible option, “Maybe,” he concluded.

Although seeing as though seven minutes later they hadn’t made an appearance he quickly ruled out that option. Thinking through another list of variables; double- triple checking ideas before ruling them out again.

“Everything alright, Liam?” some voice asked.  
“Do you know where Harry or Louis are?”  
“They should be here.”  
“But, they aren’t,” Niall said butting in, Liam could tell he was starting to be concerned about their disappearance.  
“Everything alright lads?” Louis asked seeing the concerned looks on their faces.  
The woman looked up from her clipboard; Niall and Liam turned around.  
“Where’s Harry?” Liam asked.  
“I don’t know, I assumed he was with you,” Louis lied; he knew exactly where Harry was, he also knew that he would be meeting them side- stage, to avoid any suspicions, “he’ll probably meet us side- stage.”  
“He had given us some warning last time,” Liam said.  
“Hazza, will be here,” Louis said.

A member of the stage crew came over to them breaking up their conversation.  
“Side stage for a final check,” he said.  
They followed compliantly, needing not to delay; as promised or not so promised, Harry showed up.  
“Ah hey,” Niall greeted as he saw Harry coming towards them.  
“Sorry,” he started, “I got caught up in something,” Harry apologised.  
“Well you’re here now,” Niall said.

They all got into their huddle, put their hands and started their ritual. It was there pre- performance routine. It got their adrenaline pumping, their harmonies solid and got them psyched up for stage. It is important to start the adrenaline before walking onto stage, because you have to be pumped before you get out there, otherwise it hits you all at once- it does, no matter how many times you’ve done it before.

\--

“Thank you all so much, Sydney you’ve been amazing! We hope you’ve had a fantastic night. Thank you for all the support,” Harry said one last time before walking off stage.

The screaming quietened down as they walked backstage and made their way further from the stage and therefore, the audience. Dropping off their mics and Niall’s guitar on their way; unable to sit down because of the buzz; the only reminder of the last two hours. Although the only thing they wanted to do was to get back to their hotel rooms and start to wind down and go to sleep because they had another show tomorrow night and knowing from previous experience, that the Australian fans were some of the most excitable, that they would need one hundred percent energy to make it through another show.  
They were ushered out of the building with big bulky security guards on all sides of them as they got into the back of a van; putting their seat belts on the driver started off through the busy Sydney streets. 

“Harry, what were you doing before the show?” Liam asked.  
“Yeah, where were you; you kind of just disappeared,” Louis added.  
“I was hungry, so I went back to the kitchen looking for something, and I lost track of time, I guess.”  
“Liam, here was having a mild panic attack when I saw him,” Louis said.  
“I was mildly concerned, but I was not having a panic attack,” Liam defended.  
“No, no,” Niall said adding to the fun, “I was there the whole time, you were all over the place- pacing back and forth, back and forth.”  
The others laughed at the description of their bandmate’s actions.  
“When have I ever let you down before?” Harry asked, everyone looked at him, until he added, “On second thought,” he started, “don’t answer that.” A statement which caused again another van full of laughter to occur.  
The rest of the journey was spent with the throwing and deflecting of insults as the adrenaline high continued to slowly wear off. When they arrived at the hotel, the van door was slid open from the other side by the van driver. Who cleared a path through the screaming fans who had discovered where they were staying. Slowly piling out of the van they all stumbled through the crowds of people making their way to the door.  
They were all on the other side of their adrenaline rush and quickly crashing. For the most part they all just got really, tired, but Louis was like a five- year old crashing from a sugar rush; grumpy and clingy.  
They hopped into the elevator, Harry leant against the wall, with Louis clinging onto him, like sleepy five- year old would.  
“He looks smashed,” Liam said to Niall.  
“He always looks like that after shows.”  
“Does he always look that clingy,” Liam said referring to the way that Louis was practically putting all his weight on Harry.  
“Like you said, he just looks smashed,” Niall said, “probably just needs sleep, the fans were pretty intense tonight.”  
The elevator reached their floor and Harry was guiding Louis to his room, “He looks like someone just took his chocolate off him,” Harry joked.  
“He looks like Niall when someone steals his Nando’s,” Liam said, earning him a playful punch in the shoulder from his favourite little Leprechaun.  
“Hey,” Niall complained, pouting, “I’m very protective about my Nando’s.”  
“We know,” Louis and Harry said.  
Niall started shaking his head; laughing, walking towards his room, “I’ll see you all tomorrow,” he said.  
“Yeah, goodnight, mates,” Liam said walking into his room.  
“Night,” Harry and Louis said yet again at the same time.


	2. Chapter 2- Stacks On

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kind of just a filler chapter, but I promise that it is important to the storyline in total and that this chapter has a purpose, plus it was fun to write. Just a bit of early morning goofiness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This isn’t based on any actual performance, it is the inner workings and creations of my mind. Also I should have mentioned in the first chapter this is set as though they never went on Hiatus and were touring their ‘Made in the A.M.’ album.   
> Also I haven’t checked my facts so if I say something and it isn’t right or whatever, know that you have been warned.  
> For anyone who is reading tell me that you are and what you think please. 
> 
> TheUsualSuspect xx

The next morning Niall was awake way too early for his liking, okay, it was almost nine-thirty, but since he didn’t get to sleep until well past three last night he felt like he deserved a sleep in. As far as he knew everyone else hadn’t had any issues sleeping, because he knew that Liam would’ve come to talk to Niall if he couldn’t sleep; Louis had seemed pretty out of it from exhaustion last night so he would’ve crashed; and Harry would’ve been asleep like a rock, because he always was. Niall on the other hand often had issues getting to sleep, this caused him to be irritable and tired some days. His mind was always wondering about this or that. New lyrics, hidden meanings in conversations, what the rest of his family was doing, or whether it was a good season for his favourite football team.

Last night, the cause of his lack of sleep, was the conversation that he’d had with Liam in between songs, whilst Harry was entertaining the crowd. He had it on a constant loop as an inner monologue since then trying to decipher what he really meant.

I was walking back across the stage and there’s this girl holding a sign saying ‘I ship it: Niam Horayne’,” Liam said coming to sit down next to Niall, before taking a large sip of water.  
Niall sighed, “What colour was it?” he asked, his curiosity piqued.  
“I tell you there are people who think of us as a couple, and you ask me what colour the sign is.”  
“At least it’s not as bad as the rumours that Harry and Louis are together, it’s probably just a bromance thing,” Niall reassured, “you know, how our relationship is purely platonic.”  
“Yeah, yeah,” Liam said, “Of course. 

Did Niall detect some disappointment… he wasn’t sure, and that’s what his sleeplessness was caused by. He wasn’t sure. Was he reading too far into something simple? Or was it exactly as he heard it- Liam was disappointed because Niall said that their relationship was purely platonic? 

A knock on the door pulled him from his thoughts and his face from his pillow.   
“Who is it?” he asked with his accent being incredibly thick; laced thoroughly with sleep.  
“It’s Liam,” he sounded way too awake in Niall’s opinion.  
Niall grunted, dragging himself from his sanctuary of warmth, ‘nobody can drag me down’ my ass, he thought, thinking that these sheets and covers would if he let them. He trudged to the door and opened it letting Liam in.  
“Good morning,” Liam greeted wearing a large grey shirt and comfy- looking pants.  
“Morning,” Niall said in response.  
“I see someone’s only just woken up,” Liam observed.  
“Yes,” Niall replied, walking over to his open suitcase picking up a black shirt with some kind of print on the front; throwing it on over his head he turned back to Liam who was holding two coffee cups. He held one cup, hand out-stretched toward Niall.   
“Thanks, Li,” Niall said taking his cup of coffee, thinking it odd; Liam didn’t normally get coffee.  
“I would’ve gotten some for Harry and Louis, but I think they’re both still logs.”   
“They were both pretty tired last night,” Niall observed.  
“Yeah, I could still hear them talking, at like one,” Liam said.

Niall took a sip of his coffee, it actually tasted pretty good. His experiences with Australian coffee was pretty bad, but so was his experience with vegemite- maybe it’s just because he’s Irish, and therefore uncultured to Australian foods. Would an Australian think the same thing if they were in Ireland?

“Where’d you get this from?” Niall asked taking it and sitting down on a stool next to the circular table.  
“I snuck out through the parking garage and found a little coffee shop, because the tea and coffee here is truly Australian.” In other words had way too much milk, not enough sugar, and was made by a barista that didn’t know the difference between a cappuccino and a latte.   
“And I thought it was just me, that didn’t like the coffee from here.”  
“It’s never just you Ni,” Liam said comforting him, as well as sitting down on the other stool.  
There was another knock on the door followed by a loud, “Oi, oi!” A noise that sounded like someone being hit; possibly across the arm, followed by another knock, “Niall, you up yet?” Louis yelled.  
“Yeah, I’m up,” Niall yelled back.  
Louis let himself into the room with Harry following drowsily behind him.   
“Morning,” Harry greeted with a yawn.  
“Morning,” Liam responded, turning to watch the pair walk in, noticing that Harry was walking a little oddly.  
“You okay Harold?” Niall asked.  
“I’m fine,” he replied, yawning again, “I think I pulled a muscle last night, when I was performing.”   
“Oh,” Liam commented.  
“Just be careful then love,” Louis said putting a comforting hand on Harry’s shoulder, “we still have another one tonight.”  
He responded with some sort of mumbled agreement before laying down on the lounge in the corner of Niall’s room.   
“I give it eight minutes before he’s asleep again,” Liam said leaning over to whisper to Niall, who simply laughed in response before saying, “you’re giving him that long? Really, I’m giving him five.”  
They both chuckled at this knowing the truth behind it. 

“Niall,” Louis said, “where’s your room service menu?”  
“No clue,” he replied,  
“Great,” he said turning around to walk out of the room, “I’m going to find mine.”  
“I’ll be surprised if you can find anything in that room of yours,” Niall shot at Louis.  
“Yeah, yeah,” he replied flipping Niall off as he left.  
As Louis left the room Liam and Niall turned their attention back from him.  
“How are you this morning?” Liam asked.  
“Tired, but the coffee helps. You?”  
“I’m great, besides being a touch homesick at the moment,” Liam replied.  
“Yeah, that sucks, maybe you should fly your parents over soon or something, because you haven’t seen them since Christmas,” Niall suggested.  
“You haven’t seen yours since Christmas either,” Liam argued.  
“I suppose I’m just used to being that little bit further from home, even going back to our X-Factor days, I was still in England and not back home in Ireland. Whereas you boys were all within driving distance of your hometowns,” he didn’t say this with any bitterness, it was with a fake essence of nonchalance, more just like he was trying to justify his slightly detached feelings from his family. Although there may have been a raw edge to his voice. It wasn’t not like he didn’t feel or get homesick sometimes; he was just used to it. Yes, a sad thought, but a fact of life for a popstar living a life on the road. 

Liam considered Niall’s comment, having not really ever thought it through like that before. All he could come out with was a totally insincere, “okay.”  
Niall turned to look at him with a slightly betrayed facial expression. Shit. Why was it that even after almost six years of knowing Niall, that he could still make Liam practically speechless, just by telling him that he was used to missing his family, and because Liam had no response to that he came off like a total dickhead. Great.  
“I mean-” Liam started, turning to face Niall; his facial features softening; worried that he’d offended his friend.  
“Don’t worry,” Niall said putting a reassuring hand on top of Liam’s one sitting on the table, “I know what you mean Li.”  
Liam looked away, letting his hand slide from underneath Niall’s at the same time, trying to avoid the colour threatening to caress his cheeks.   
“I can’t find the room service menu’s anywhere!” Louis called out, announcing his presence to the whole world.  
Liam looked up from his coffee, “They have to be somewhere.”’  
“Yeah, if you could tell me where that would really help, thanks,” Louis remarked.  
“Ooh, I much preferred your ‘Three-year- old crashing from sugar high’ mood,” Niall added, “compared to your ‘I didn’t get any sleep last night and now I need a caffeine and food hit before I can function again’ mood.”  
“You can’t talk,” he replied, “you have a cup of coffee.” He turned to Liam with an accusing look.  
He put his arms up in defense, “You were asleep when I left to get coffee, I couldn’t hear anything coming from your room, and all I heard from Harry’s was some tossing and turning.”  
To that Louis had no remark, he could only turn back around and continue looking for the menu.  
“How long do you think it’ll take him to find it?” Liam asked.  
“I don’t know,” Niall started; turning around to face Liam, “I don’t even know where it is.”   
There was a bemused smirk playing on the edges of Liam’s lips. Niall followed the brunet’s eye- line to where the newspaper was- with the menu sticking out from underneath.   
Niall looked back up at Liam, “When did you?”  
“When you were looking for a shirt.”  
“Ahh,” the realisation had struck.  
“Smart,” he replied, turning his head back to his coffee, “Wait,” he whipped his head back to Liam, “how did you know that Louis would come in looking for it?”  
“Maybe I was hiding it from someone else.”  
“Mean,” Niall proclaimed, before hollering out, “LOU! I found the menu!” He quickly snatched the menu from underneath the newspaper, ignoring the brush of his hand against Liam’s, “here you go Lou,” he said holding his arm outstretched in front of him.  
“Thanks Nialler.” Turning around in search of a phone.  
Liam shot Niall a glance, “What?” he asked with a shrug if his shoulders.  
“Can’t you let me have my little piece of fun?” Liam asked.  
“Yeah, well,” Niall started, stalling by taking another sip of his coffee, “I have to be able to have my fun as well.”  
“Well that’s true,” another sip of coffee.  
“And why would we wish a hungry Louis on anybody?” Liam considered this, letting a silence come over the table.   
“He’s got a solid point,” a mumbled voice from the couch added after a while.  
“Haha, I win,” Niall cheered a little too excitedly, intentionally poking fun at Liam, who pouted in response,” I’m just making fun.”   
“Sure you are Nialler,” Louis added with a smirk, interrupting their conversation as he walked back into the room.

He walked over to the couch that was currently occupied with a half comatose Harry Styles lying to fill the entire length of it. Without hesitation, without warning, without any sort of communication Louis decided to simply sit atop Harry.   
He gave out a weak groan in response, “Louis,” he grumbled.  
“Harold,” he responded.  
“You comfy?”  
“Yes, actually, very comfy, yeah.”  
“Get off.”  
“What was that?” he held his hand to his ear, as if not being able to hear.  
“Get off, please,” he begged.  
“Ooo, a ‘please’… hmm,” he considered this before abruptly answering, “Nope!”  
“Geeeet oooooofffffffffffffffff,” he complained like a child.  
“Now look at who’s the three-year-old crashing from a sugar high,” Niall observed leaning across the table to whisper to Liam.  
He let out a chuckle in response.  
“What are you laughing about?” Louis asked.  
“Maybe the fact that he has someone sitting on top of him,” Harry mumbled, “oh wait that’s me,” he gave Louis another shove with his legs.  
“I’m only sitting on top of your leg,” Louis argued.  
“At least he’s not lying on top of you like you were last time this happened,” Niall imputed.  
Harry and Louis shared a glance, before laughing off Niall’s comment.

Niall put his coffee down and ran over to the couch before unceremoniously flopping on top of Harry and Louis.  
“Niall,” they both complained, too focused on him to notice that Liam was now in the process of draping himself on top of them.   
“When did this become a game of ‘stacks on’?” Harry asked.  
“When you collapsed on the lounge,” Niall answered.  
“I am tired,” Harry said in defence of himself. He wanted someone to challenge his defence; to call bullshit on it or something. He could use some playful banter right about now, having something to concentrate on always seemed to help wake him up.  
“Me too,” Niall chimed in.  
“Issues sleeping, love?” Louis asked.  
“Yep, what about you Haz, why are you tired?”  
“Not enough sleep, even though I was asleep as soon as I could be.”  
“That sucks,” Liam commented, shifting his weight forward, off the pile, so that he could move down to sit on the edge of the couch and not on the pile of Harry, Louis and Niall, “So, what are we doing today?”  
“Sleeping,” Harry replied.   
“We have a day off, and you plan to spend it sleeping?” Liam questioned.  
“Yes,” he and Louis both replied.  
“Seriously, both of you?” Niall asked.  
“Yep,” they chorused again.  
Niall, shot a curious glance at Liam, who returned it.  
“I’m hungry,” Louis complained.  
“Nice to meet you, I’m Harry.”  
“Shut up Styles, I want my food.”  
“And I want my sleep, but because of you, that’s not going to happen.”  
There was a knock on the door, “room service.”

Louis shot up and was at the door in an instant, tipping the bringer of food. He took the food; thanked him for bringing the food up, and closed the door.  
Louis sat on the couch with a plate of bacon and eggs and started filling himself with it, but not before pouring himself a cup of tea. Caffeine.  
“Does anyone know when we’re getting the photos back from the shoot we did a couple weeks ago?” Harry asked.  
“Yeah, I think it was meant to be earlier this week, but- wait, why do you care so much?” Niall asked, curious. Photoshoots weren’t something that particularly concerned Harry. He loved them and had heaps of fun, but he usually wasn’t fussed about the outcome.  
“He’s nervous because he thoroughly disliked almost everyone we did last year.”  
Niall nodded his head in agreement.  
“Most of them were really bad,” Harry confirmed.  
“Not the album cover, the album cover turned out alright,” Liam imputed.  
“Yeah,” Harry agreed, “but then there’s the one that makes me look like I’m picking my lunch out of my teeth or something, I seriously don’t know how that got picked,” Harry said.”  
“Well, hopefully we’ll get them soon.”  
“Yeah.”

Liam continued scrolling through his phone, looking for any possible things that they could do, purely just to get out of the hotel, they hadn’t done much in Australia, sight- seeing wise. Mostly due to the fact that a) it’s hard when you’re on tour because you have fans watching your every move, which means that b) you have to wear a disguise which c) is generally too much trouble, and generally just leaves them ordering room service and playing video games for the rest of the spare time they had. Being on tour was great, and their whole career was a godsend, but the only time they had left their hotel in the last three days was for their performance last night. By ten thirty they were undoubtedly bound to be bored.   
“Okay,” Louis piped up, “I need a shower,” he announced finishing off his breakfast as he stood and exited the room.  
“Yeah, I’m just going to go and lie down in my room,” Harry said trying to maintain his footing whilst walking towards the door.  
“You okay Haz?” Liam asked.  
“I think I’m getting a cold or something, and I feel like 40 winks was literally all I got,” he replied.  
“Okay, do you need anything? Is there anything I can do that would help?” Liam asked. He hated seeing his friends being really out of it, whether it be from sickness, or from having a little too much to drink- either way he was all for doing anything to help them.  
“Thanks, but I’m just going to try and sleep it off before tonight.”  
“Okay,” Liam replied knowing that it was normal for Harry to just sleep off any illness he got, heck, he could probably be dying and he would still try to sleep it off.   
“Are you going to go now and leave me?” Niall asked Liam.  
“No,” he replied, “cause then I’d be lonely as well, plus you make excellent company.”  
“Give me two hours and I won’t make excellent company, because I’ll be so crazy from being stuck inside this hotel.”  
“I know that and I also know that by that time I won’t either,” Liam replied.  
“Well, the way I see it, we have two options: either we stay here and drive ourselves crazy, or we find some way to get out of here because Harry and Louis may be content on staying here and waiting for the results of a photoshoot, but I on the other hand am not,” Niall said.  
“Okay, what do you want to do?”  
“What’s there to do?”  
Liam opened a search on his phone, “Okay, best things to do in Sydney in winter,” he started, “Taronga Zoo, Sydney tower Skywalk, learn to surf- ”  
“Wait, what in winter?”  
“I’m just reading what the website tells me,” Liam said in defence, “indoor sky-diving, Luna Park, The Art Gallery, Chinese garden of Friendship, Sydney fish markets, um,” he continued scrolling, “Sydney Olympic park.”  
“We can cross the most of them off the list of possibilities,” Niall noted, “I’m not sure how cool anyone would be with letting us wander about only to go indoor sky diving, to the zoo, or to Luna Park.”  
“Yeah, and museums are always crowded, so let’s not go to the Art Gallery.”  
“Same goes for any parks.”  
“So, that just leaves the Skywalk and the fish markets.”  
“I vote Fish Markets,” Niall voted.  
“Me too, great minds think alike, hey.”  
“Apparently so.”  
“We’ll leave at quarter to, yeah?”  
“Okay, don’t forget to tell someone where we’re going or we’ll be bound to get a talking to from someone.”  
“Yeah, okay. I’ll make sure it’s okay,” Liam replied as he walked out of Niall’s room putting his empty coffee cup in the bin on the way past.


	3. Chapter 3- Movies and Mussels

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologise for any weird spacing :)

Chapter 3- Movies and Mussels

After Liam had, had a shower and gotten dressed he headed into Harry’s room.  
Liam knocked on the door before entering. Harry was asleep; bundled in blankets, half splayed across the bed. Last night must have really taken it out of him, because this was unusual, even for Harry- maybe he really was getting sick.  
Liam stepped back outside almost bumping into Louis as they both came around the corner at the same time.  
“Watch where you’re going,” Louis warned with a fake seriousness.  
Liam let out a silent chuckle and smile at his comment, “Yeah, um, Hazza doesn’t look great, he’s asleep right now,” Liam said, “Niall and I are going to see about doing something today, you want in?”  
“Nah, someone should stay here with Haz so he doesn’t feel left out.”  
“Okay.”  
“Are you planning on sneaking out, or does someone know you guys are going?”  
“I was going to tell someone, especially after the debacle in Tokyo last year, and in every second city the year before that, but.. I don’t think so,” Liam said.  
“Well, you know what they say,” Louis started with a mischievous glint in his eye, “It’s easier to seek forgiveness than to ask permission.”  
“So they do,” Liam agreed, turning to walk over to Niall’s room.

He knocked on the door quickly before opening it without waiting for a response. A choice he was still debating whether was bad or not, when he walked in and saw Niall standing with only a towel wrapped around his waist.  
Niall had his back to him, he clearly hadn’t heard the knock, or the door open, and it wasn’t like Liam hadn’t seen Niall without a shirt on before, he hadn’t been wearing one when he brought the coffees in this morning, and when you’re practically living on top of someone for five years you’re bound to catch them shirtless. But this, this was something different; he still had droplets of water running down his back; his hair was flat and wet, and he could see his muscles flex as he rooted through his bag. He would be lying if he said that he didn’t have the slight urge to lick the droplets of water off his back.  
He shook the preposterous thought from his head, deciding to knock on the open door, louder this time whilst also taking a step back to give off the impression that he hadn’t been standing there for the past half- minute. This time Niall turned around, as Liam took a step forward, as though he was just entering the room. Niall looked ready to cover his upper half in case it wasn’t one of the boys.  
“Ah,” he said, “Payno, just you.”  
“Yeah.”  
“Not some crazed fan here to steal my pants,” he joked.

Liam laughed at the memory, he had woken up to someone on his balcony, and when he went to see who or what is was, someone had stolen his pants. The memory was slightly cringe worthy, especially when he thought about the lengths the fan would have gone to, in order to get them. Still, he defended them.  
“I think ‘crazed’ is a little extreme,” Liam rationalised.  
“Okay, ‘dedicated’, but it was a very extreme action. They climbed onto your balcony and stole your underwear Li,” Niall explained.  
“Yeah, I know. Also,” he added, changing the topic, “Louis isn’t coming with us, he wants to stay here with Harry, who is asleep.”  
Niall responded with a muffled ‘okay’ as he pulled a shirt on over his head.  
“You good to go in a minute?” Liam asked as Niall walked into the bathroom to pull some underwear and a pair of pants on, or at least that was Liam’s best guess was.  
“Yep,” Niall said, re-emerging from the bathroom and slipping on a pair of shoes, before wandering into the next room and grabbing a hat and some unfashionable sun glasses.

They made their way into the hallway, closing the numbered door behind them.  
“Do you have a quiet way out of here?” Niall asked Liam, “because I’m thinking we don’t want massive scandal over leaving here without permission and then stuffing it up because we’re seen going out the front doors.”  
“Yeah, maybe,” Liam said, “we can try the exit of the parking garage that I used this morning,” he suggested.  
“Okay. Let’s try that,” Niall agreed pushing the button for the lift, “You know where we’re going don’t you?”  
“Um, I don’t, but google maps does,” Liam reassured stepping into the empty lift.  
Niall chuckled, “Just don’t get us lost.”

The lift had such an elegant presence, it was made decorated to make it look very old-style. Not old- style in the likeness of your Grandmother’s curtains and wallpaper that smelt of mothballs. But old- style in the sense of something from the Victorian era, looking like some of the buildings that you would find in the old side of London, like all of the buildings that were still standing, or not majorly damaged in the fire in the 1600s. Although its beauty wasn’t stolen by the modern technology either, unlike the Apple store squashed in between two 17th century style buildings in London.

They got out at the parking level and walked over to the foot exit which was surprisingly clear of all people. They pulled hats and sunglasses on, and kept their heads down because if anyone recognised them, their outing would be over pretty quickly.  
“I feel like a criminal on the run,” Niall stated.  
“Well we’ve just escaped from prison and its other crazy inmates,” Liam joked.  
Niall laughed, “Where are we going?”  
“Um,” Liam pulled his phone out, “We are going this way.”

Even for what would be considered a cool day in mid- July that wasn’t raining, it was still very glary although being overcast and overly crowded. Well, oddly crowded for what they were expecting, but they would deal. They pulled their hats further down, lowered their heads, halted conversation and started weaving further through the crowd. Had of anyone noticed them, they probably would have thought that they were up to something a little suspicious, but everyone was so caught up in their own problems to notice two of the members of the world’s biggest boy band acting like they'd done something shady. Thankfully, as they turned the corner onto Allen Street the crowd thinned out significantly. 

"How much further?" Niall complained, "I'm hungry."  
"Not much further," Liam replied, "unless google maps is wrong. Google maps has been wrong before."  
"That was because you put the wrong address in Li," Niall said, "you put in the wrong number. So google maps was right, you, Liam Payne, were wrong," he concluded.  
"Okay, fine, human error," he admitted, "but these directions are straight from the website. They shouldn't be wrong."  
"It's still a part of the Internet, not everything on there's true."  
"Oh god," Liam complained, "Could you imagine if it was. If everything that we read on the internet was true."  
"That is not a nice image," Niall added.  
"All of the rumours..." Liam shuddered at the thought.  
"The outcome would not be pretty," he agreed, "can we stop somewhere and get food, because I just remembered that I haven't had breakfast yet."  
"Really?" Liam questioned, incredulous, "you, Niall Horan, man with the highest metabolism that I know, forgot to have breakfast?"  
"Yep."  
"Liar," Liam proclaimed, "You just wanted to eat out cause you're sick of hotel and plane food."  
"Maybe..." Niall sheepishly admitted.  
"You know what," Liam said wrapping one arm around Niall and pulling him close, before leaning down and whispering in his ear, "I don't blame you," he withdrew and added, "So let's fix that, where do you want to go for breakfast?"  
Niall's thoughts were slightly clouded from the feeling of Liam's breath on his ear, so it took him a minute to register what Liam had said.

00.. 

"Harry, just lie back down," Louis forced.  
"No, I think I'm fine to sit up Louis."  
"You're sick Haz, and we have a performance tonight, you don't want to push yourself now," Louis said almost shoving a cup of tea under Harry's nose.  
"I feel much better after my nap," he said taking the tea.  
"You weren't even asleep for half an hour."  
"Okay, but I feel much better now."  
"Well, we still don't have anything to do today, so I opt for a movie day."  
"Okay, what do you want to watch?"  
"What have you got?" Louis asked.  
"Nothing, you'll probably have to raid one of the others bags."  
"I've got a couple, but I honestly can't remember what they are," Louis said, "but I'll go get them first, yeah?"  
Harry nodded his head and let out a small yawn, "yeah, sounds good."

Louis started heading for the door, but stopped halfway turning around to ask a question, "Hey, um. Haz?"  
"Yes Lou," he responded.  
"Are you feeling okay?"  
"Yeah, I said, it's just a cold I have to sleep off."  
"No," Louis said giving him a pointed look.  
"Oh, oh," Harry said when he realised what Louis was referring to, "yeah, I'm fine. It was great."  
"Okay," Louis said nodding his head, "me too," he added with a smile. 

Louis came back a while later with an armful of DVD's. He laid them out at the end of the bed.  
"Okay," he started, "from my bag we have: Grease, Batman: The Dark Knight, and Top Gun."  
"Mm, next," Harry instructed.  
"Okay, from Liam's bag we have: more Batman movies, Toy Story, The Great Gatsby."  
"What else is there?"  
"And from what I could find in Niall's bag there is: the forth Harry Potter, some sort of Disney movie, the Hunger Games, and.... Frozen?"  
"Frozen?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow, "Why does Niall have Frozen on DVD?"  
"Not a clue, we can always ask him later," Louis said, "any of those movies catch your fancy?"  
"Either Gatsby or Harry Potter," he answered, "Actually, which Harry Potter is it?"  
"Goblet of Fire."  
Harry nodded in response, taking a sip of his tea.

Louis fired up the television and the DVD player putting in the disc, grabbing the remote and sliding under the covers next to Harry.  
"If you get hungry, tell me, okay," Louis said, "you need your rest, we have another performance tonight," he said running a comforting hand through Harry's hair.  
"Yeah, we do," he said, a small smile playing on his lips as he took another sip of his tea, waiting for the movie to start.

00..

After their breakfast had been sought out, had, and paid for, they continued on their way towards the fish markets, and were glad when the sun had finally come out; they liked Australia for its weather so it was slightly upsetting if when they came it was raining and gloomy like it was back home in England. 

As they reached the bottom of the street, they could see the waterfront. It was a glassy blue, not beautiful and transparent like the picturesque beaches of the Bahamas and the Maldives. But it held its own beauty as the deep grey depths sat in the sunlight, struggling to move as they trudged through the water way.

"Beautiful," Liam breathed out.  
"Ah, thank you Li," Niall mockingly cooed.  
"Not you," Liam replied, "I'm talking about the water."  
Niall pouted.  
"But you will always be beautiful to me," Liam added.  
Niall blushed, "You too Li. But of course the water still looks better," he teased.  
"Hey, I never said that you looked better than the ocean, my little Leprechaun."

'My little leprechaun'! Alarm bells rang inside Niall's head. Liam just said he was 'his'..or was he reading too far into something, he probably was. But that coupled with his previous statement of him being beautiful, it all seemed a little bit too much to not believe.  
Trying to get his mind of the words, he resumed the conversation, with the pathetic reply of" I'm not little," he said defending himself, "I'm only 15 days younger than you, and we're the same height," he argued.  
Liam laughed, "I'm just teasing."  
Niall fell into Liam's side with a deplorable attempt to throw him off balance. 

Once Liam regained a little balance, they continued walking on the footpath alongside the water, but had to stop when they came to a set of lights. Liam walked over to the button, pushed it a few times, turned back to face Niall, then turned back to the button, impatiently pushing it a few more times.  
Niall let out a deep chuckle at his bandmate's actions, "you can push it as many times as you want, it's not going to go any faster," he said.  
Liam pouted and turned back to face Niall, "I still hope that one day it will work."  
"Yes, one day it will work, just like one day I won't be Irish," Niall joked trying to prove his point, "and I'll never not be Irish, or not proud of it," he proclaimed rather loudly as the red light switched to green and a loud beeping filled the air letting them know it was safe to cross the road.  
"Ni, we're meant to be staying under the radar, not preaching our country's history."  
Niall instantly checked to make sure no one had heard, or if they had that they didn’t care.  
"I just mean, that we have managed to escape our hotel, and get to spend time together outside it, without having to put up with the other boys antics, and I don't want to ruin or waste it. I like spending time with you Ni," Liam admitted.  
"And I like spending time with you as well," Niall agreed.

They turned the corner into the Fish Markets and all they could see were people. It seemed that the fish markets were mainly dominated by a mostly Asian population, which made it even harder to blend in. There were people walking holding all sorts of seafood in their hands; everything from crabs and lobsters to freshly caught salmon. There was a whole market place, brimming with crowds, over flowing with people spewing out the end.  
They alternated between moving with the crowds and weaving against the flow to make their way to the seafood.  
Inside it looked like a shopping centre, but with each shop selling seafood of some variety, along with some other foods shops thrown into the mix. They could smell a strong oceanic aroma coupled with the foetid scent of fish innards, not pleasant, but exactly what would be expected at fish markets.  
They surveyed what shops there was inside the market, from what they could see, from where they had entered, there was a sushi shop, a bakery, a small crustacean shop in the back corner, and a seafood restaurant of some variety.  
“Not really what I’d expect for a fish market,” Liam commented, “like, I get the crustaceans and the seafood restaurant, and the sushi place, but a bakery. Really?”  
“Yeah,” Niall agreed, “that’s really weird.”  
“I’ll be disappointed if that’s all there really is.”  
“Me too.”

As they turned the corner they found what they were looking for. It also seemed to be the place where the majority of people were milling around. As they ventured inside, they encountered every single piece of seafood that they knew, and a couple they didn’t. Prawns, salmon, barramundi, flat-head, oysters, flounder, shrimps, crayfish, mussels, octopus, about 20 or so other species of fish, and a tank up the back with massive live lobsters. Not very humane, but one way or another they were going to be dead by the end of the day. For every different type of seafood; be it fish or crustacean, there was a different section of the shop for it. If you wanted prawns and salmon you had to go to two different counters to get and pay for the food, one for the prawns and another for the salmon. On the left hand side of the room there was a separate section that pretty much acted as a fish and chips shop: they sold fish, chips, scallops, deep-fried crustacean dishes. Which again were all paid for at a counter separate to the others.

“Wow,” Niall said, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen this amount of seafood all in one place.”  
“Except maybe the ocean,” Liam teased.  
“But Li, you can’t actually see all of this when you look at the sea.”  
“Mmh,” he mumbled in agreement.  
They both set off in different directions, both keen to try new food. Niall headed over to the fish, whilst Liam wondered around aimlessly in attempt to find something that took his fancy. After about ten minutes Liam was looking for Niall, he found him standing by the opening to get out.  
“Oh there you are,” Niall said, “I was looking for you before, but I couldn’t see you so I figured you’d have to come out this way at some point.”  
“Yeah,” Liam said as they started walking out the opposite way they’d come in. On the way out there was an alcohol store, a newsagent, and more stalls selling other various types of seafood. 

They walked outside and after several laps up and down of the seating area they waited whilst an elderly couple got up and left, before scavenging the table for themselves.  
“What you get?” Liam asked as he unwrapped his food.  
“Since I’m experimenting I got a couple oysters, a couple mussels and some lobster,’ he answered, “You?”  
“I got some chips and mussels as well.”  
“You don’t need any more mussels Li,” Niall joked.  
“Haha, you don’t either.”  
“I just got them cause’ they look good, and taste good,” he argued, adding “supposedly,” as an afterthought.  
“Yeah, well my muscles look pretty good too,” Liam joked.  
“Yes,” Niall agreed, “Pretty boy.”  
“Well at least I’m not the ‘Prettiest Princess’,” he jokingly fired back.  
“I am quite happy with that title,” he said with a very regal flick of imaginary hair.  
Liam laughed, shaking his head as he made a start on his food.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N- I hope you guys didn't get POV whiplash from that, granted I've read worse, but stick with it. Also, I’m not a big seafood eater, so I don’t really know why I decided to write an admiration of seafood in here. Oh well, I think it sounded okay. I also love comments so please take a little time and just leave your thoughts on the chapter in a word, or even a little constructive criticism, leave ideas for a future chapter. Just please don’t full out abuse my work and claim that it is ‘constructive’, cause it isn’t it’s just rude. Sorry, but I’ve had those problems before.  
> Lots of love, TheUsualSuspect xx


	4. Chapter 4- A Rainy Photo Review

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PLEASE READ!! IMPORTANT!  
> I am trying to focus on one ship per chapter; however, that does not appear to be working.  
> I am also writing, two other fanfics for another fandom, and an original story so it can take me anywhere from 2 weeks to 6 months to update, but it generally sits somewhere in the six-week spot.   
> Possible smut next chapter, yes or no... You choose.

Chapter 4- A Rainy Photo Review  
They’d been less than halfway through the movie when Louis noticed that Harry had drifted off again. He’d probably played a big part in that, with the fact that he had sat, mindlessly thumbing through Harry’s hair, lulling him to sleep, whilst he had conveniently let his head drop onto Louis’ shoulder. At the time he had been happy to let his head rest there, but now that he couldn’t feel the most part of his arm, and he wanted to get up and put another movie in, this became a problem, it also didn’t help that Harry was lying somewhat on top of Louis.  
Harry must have registered the loss of bodily contact when Louis moved his head onto the pillow because he murmured something incoherent and stirred slightly, turning over as he did so. Louis pulled a copy of ‘Superman’ out of his bag, he had purposely not brought it out earlier because he knew that Harry would spend the first half of the movie cooing over how it was cute that Louis still liked the movie. Considering the fact that Louis really wanted Harry to feel well enough for the show tonight he wanted a movie that Harry could fall asleep watching. As much as Louis could never sleep through an action movie, no matter how ridiculous the storyline; but, he knew all the ones that Harry could sleep through. The more rest Harry got, the better it would be, god forbid that his cold escalates before the show and his voice goes, that would create more than a couple problems.   
Louis didn’t really watch much of Superman as it played, instead, he did the creepy stalker thing and watched Harry sleep. That did actually sound creepy, so to rephrase: he admired the curly-haired lad, running his hand through the tresses of Harry’s hair. He discovered that he had a habit of twitching his nose in his sleep, it was cute. As was the small smile that sat on his lips, it was something so simple; however, it was equally beautiful… which made things complicated. Last night did not help that. If anything since… that, their… friendship? Relationship? Bromance? … Whatever it was, was so fucked up right now. They had both needed last night, but that only made things worse. What were they now?   
Louis got up off the bed and walked into the mini- kitchen, getting himself a glass of water. He put his elbows on the bench and rested his head in his hands. He just breathed deeply, he’d been running on elation, nerves and wonder all day, which had put him off the fact that he was, in fact, exhausted. Lifting his head up, he downed his glass of water in one breath, turning it upside down in the sink when he was finished. Turning around, Louis trudged back over to Harry’s bed, rolling under the covers and onto his side, so that he was half- spooning Harry. Even with the movie still rolling along in the background; the dramatic cinematic points matched with music, it still didn’t take Louis too long to fall asleep. He liked the feeling of having someone next to him, the warm body close to his own, especially one that didn’t snore, the one that he considered a rock in his life.   
Even though they were half- spooning it didn’t feel awkward falling asleep next to Harry. It felt like all the nights that they stayed awake watching movies, both lying so still that they had each convinced the other that they were asleep, and that was comfortable; normal. They had never had to worry about someone finding them like that, it was a perfectly normal thing that friends did. They were friends back then before everything got really complicated, with weird half-truths being thrown around by the fan base, because before that, he was totally sure that his feelings for Harry were completely platonic, but ever since the fan theories, and ever since last night. Everything had a double meaning…   
00..  
As Liam and Niall made their way from their table and back through the streets on their return trip from the markets Niall decided he wanted ice-cream. So Liam had willingly obliged as they changed course to go in search of ice-cream. Personally, he didn’t really feel like ice-cream, because he was still full from his lunch, and it did multiply the chances of being spotted out, it was a miracle that they hadn’t so far, but it was more time outside of their hotel room. They turned off of the main street that they were walking on, and onto one of the side streets, parallel to Darling Harbour, but about four roads down.   
It was less crowded on these streets. There was a vintage café with vines and shrubbery winding their way up the cross beam panelling, with flowers in almost anything you could use as a pot or terrarium; everything from beakers and vases to mugs and fish bowls. The most colourful little flowers were sprouting up in between the cracks in the bricks. There was a very rustic feel to it, added to with the old painted driftwood signs that advertised its business hours.   
They continued down the street, their slightly lighter attire earning some strange looks from people, and there were a couple stares of lingering familiarity, as though they’d seen them before, but couldn’t quite place it. They hadn’t been expecting it to be this cold before they’d stepped out of the hotel earlier that day, so they were both seeking the sunny spots as much as they could.  
“What would you do if you knew that someone close to you was going to die, but they didn’t know it and you couldn’t prevent it?” Niall asked, “If you had one day left with them what would you do?”  
“Um,” Liam pondered, they were asked this question, or similar ones in interviews so many times, and he knew that he either didn’t answer, or just rambled some pathetic scenario that doesn’t actually answer the question, “I don’t know? Why do you ask?”  
“I dunno, just curious.”   
“Well if it was you or one of the boys, I’d probably take you to a video arcade in the morning and play on that until the afternoon, do a performance, and then go to a karaoke bar late at night.”  
“That’s a good plan, why don’t you ever say anything like that in interviews?”  
Liam exhaled, “Cause’ then you’ve got to justify it, and I don’t really know how I’d do that. To me, it’s not something that can be justified or quantified, like you can’t put a price tag on a friendship or on a special event.”  
“Wow,” Niall half- mocked, “Real words of wisdom, Payne.”  
Liam playfully shoved him to the side, “That’s very wise, Liam,” Niall said.  
“What would you want someone to do for you if it was your last day on Earth?” Liam asked.  
Niall thought about his answer as they walked into a place that looked as though it sold ice- cream.   
They stalled conversation whilst Niall ordered his double choc-chip ice- cream with a double scoop of gummy bears. Once they were back out, they again started making their way back towards the hotel, whilst savouring in the warmth of the sunlight, and dodging the shadows and the cold the brought.   
“A golf tournament, with an all you can eat buffet.”  
“What?” Liam asked, the sudden statement sounding slightly strange.  
“What I would want someone to do for me and my last day on Earth,” he responded, “A golf tournament with an all you can eat buffet.”  
“Nice, I like that one,” Liam said, before changing the topic and asking, “What’s the money that they’re both asleep and watching Grease?”  
“Hmm,” Niall pondered, “I’ll bet you twenty that Louis is awake and he’s watching Superman.”  
“Okay,” Liam said, “deal,” they shook on it, trying to look like professional business men, but probably looking more like old men that were dressing like twenty- something- year old guys, that were not suited to the cooler change in the weather.  
“I really want to get back now,” Niall started complaining, I’m really cold, even the sun has no heat in it now.”  
“Yeah,” Liam said, “I’m pretty sure it’s just up here, but for the meanwhile, I’ll warm you up,” he said putting an arm around the other boy and pulling him close.  
Niall snuggled into Liam’s side, he had noticed over the years that they’d spent together, that he was always warmer. It had never really been much use for Niall until then.  
“I wish I had of packed warmer clothes,” Niall mumbled.  
“Not even for the European leg of the tour?” Liam asked.  
“No,” Niall answered before adding, “You know how I complain every year on tour because my suitcase is so heavy?”   
“Yeah.”  
“This year I didn’t pack any of my really heavy clothes, or any of the ones that take up heaps of space.”  
“Did you not realise that you wouldn’t have any warm clothes?” Liam asked, turning his head to face the other boy.   
“I did notice, I just didn’t think that I would need it until we got to Europe, I was just going to buy a jacket when we got there.”  
“Did someone forget that it was going to be winter when we were in Australia?” Liam asked,  
“Maybe, they were a little distracted when they were packing,” he replied with a slight blush of embarrassment.  
Liam laughed, pulling Niall closer into his chest as he did so.  
They got back into the hotel and were welcomed by the warmth when they entered. The dry heat was nice compared to the cold breeze that had lingered around them outside. Liam went to pull away from Niall as they waited for the elevators, but Niall just snuggled back into his side, wrapping an arm around Liam’s waist, securing his place there, and resting his head on his shoulder.   
“Comfy there Ni?” Liam asked.  
He let out a mumbled response of that was the equivalent of ‘Yes, very comfy’, but that sounded somewhere in between ‘Ves, very cumpy’ and like he wanted an order of fish and gravy.   
They got out of the elevator on their floor only to find Paul in all sorts about their disappearing. He heard footsteps behind him and turned around to see Liam and Niall.   
“Where were you?” he asked.  
“Out,” Liam replied, sounding very much like a teenage boy who was out past his curfew.  
“Do I have to remind you about Tokyo?” Paul asked.  
“No,” they both looked down at their feet nervously.  
“Do the words ‘take security with you’ still mean nothing?”   
“They attract attention,” Liam complained, “It’s really hard to stay under the radar when you’ve got the hulk watching your every move.”  
“Okay, you just need to be careful,” he paused, “I would expect this from Louis.”  
“No, Louis would announce it to the entire world via Twitter and then leave only to not be able to make it through the front door, which, by the way, we didn’t,” Niall joked.  
There was a small smile on Paul’s lips, “Well, you didn’t get yourselves into any trouble, that’s all that matters.”  
Liam and Niall smiled apologetically before heading further up the hallway and knocking on Harry’s door, when there was no answer Liam turned around to rest lean sideways against the wall, looking at Niall.  
“They’re both asleep,” he proclaimed, “I win.”  
Niall mimicked his actions as he turned to face him.   
“Nope,” he said, “you only win if they’re watching Grease.”  
“Well, you’ve already lost because they are both asleep.”  
“How do we know they’re in there?”  
They both shared a look, one that was glinted with mischief and often associated with the words ‘are you thinking what I’m thinking?’, before turning back to the door and madly bashing their fists against the wood and shouting all variations of names in hopes that one of them would open the door. They both almost fell inside as the door was opened by an incredibly agitated looking Louis.  
“You’re so loud,” he commented, “why are you so loud?”  
“I think that’s a little bit of a hypocritical statement,” Liam commented.  
“Why are you answering Harry’s door?” Niall asked as Louis dodged Liam’s comment.  
“Because he’s asleep watching Superman,” Louis responded, to which Niall smirked at Liam.  
“Pay up,” he said.  
“Not yet,” Liam replied.  
“What?” Louis asked, clearly confused.  
Liam side- stepped his question with his own as he asked, “Were you both asleep?”  
“Well I was until you two decided to come banging on the door like mad men trying to escape a burning building.”  
“No,” Niall muttered, before turning to Liam, “where does this leave our bet?”  
“What bet?” Louis asked.  
“Liam bet that you would both be asleep with Grease playing, and I bet that you would be awake watching Superman,” Niall explained, “but since you were both asleep, and watching Superman, we come to an unusual point.”  
“I see,” Louis pondered in thought for a minute, “you are at a stalemate. Neither of you win, neither of you lose, but next time, it’s double or nothing.”  
“Okay,” Liam agreed, along with Niall’s ‘that’ll work’.  
“It’s on Payno,” Niall said in his deepest, most intimidating voice, leaning in closer and feigning an intimidating glare in Liam’s direction.  
Liam also pulled out his most intimidating voice and stance to reply with, “You are so going down, Horan.”  
They both held their stares until Louis spoke, with his question of ‘on who?’  
Niall tried not to laugh, but he really couldn’t, so he broke eye contact with Liam and doubled over in laughter at Louis remark, letting the foghorn type noises take over his body. He could tell that Liam was also laughing, and he could picture a winning smirk on Louis’ face. He let his laughter peter out as he stood up again, and brushed the non- existent crinkles out of his shirt, as if to demonstrate self- composure.   
“Are you quite done waking up Harry with your loud noises?” Louis asked.  
“You started it,” Niall responded.  
“Isn’t that the argument of a three-year- old?” Liam asked.  
“Yep,” Louis replied, “and apparently of a twenty- three-year-old.  
“Ha Ha,” Niall deadpanned.  
Liam changed the topic by asking how Harry was feeling, and Louis said that he had pretty much just slept through two and a half movies. All they could do was cross their fingers and hope that he was feeling well enough to perform tonight. Louis thought he would be, he just hoped that Harry was exhausted, and that if he slept for the most part of the day, that he’d be okay. Louis hoped Harry was just incredibly tired.  
At that time Simone, who was one of the people responsible for their physical image, not their public image, but in charge of deciding on photo shoot ideas, themes, and of course which of those photos taken were actually used in anything. Whether the shoot was for a magazine, for an album cover, or a calendar or book, or anything else in between, Simone had the final deciding opinion, but she always made sure the boys had a say, and got to see the pictures before they were published and made public.  
“Hi Simone,” Liam greeted as she approached the group.   
She smiled in return, before turning and looking into the dark room, “Where’s Harry?”  
“In there,” Niall replied, gesturing to the room with his thumb.   
She raised an eyebrow, at the apparent emptiness of the room, before Liam elaborated.  
“He’s sleeping.”  
“He wasn’t feeling too great this morning,” Louis interjected, “he’s trying to sleep it off.”  
“Oh okay, well I just got the prints back from the last photoshoot.”  
“Oooh, I want to see,” Liam said, as he grabbed the yellow package that they photos were in.  
Louis went to grab them out of Liam’s hands, but he swatted it away, and started walking across the hallway to his room. The rest of the group shuffled in after him as he opened his door. Louis charged at Liam and jumped on his back, causing him to collapse onto the bed and land on top of the photos.  
“Boys!” Simone scolded, “Get off, get off,” she motioned a sweeping gesture with her hands, telling them to get off, “You’ll ruin the prints.”  
Louis was laughing as he rolled off Liam, and Niall was almost doubled over in laughter at the antics of his fellow bandmates. Simone came over to Louis with stern look. He sat up with his hands in front of himself in a feigned protective position, still fighting off the last few laughs.   
“Mm sorry, I’m sorry Simone,” he apologised.  
“Yeah,” she said, “you’re fine.”  
Niall walked around to the other side of the bed and sat on the end of it with his feet stretched out in front of him, “Alright, let’s see these photos then,” he said.  
Liam sat up and opened the package that he’d half squashed and pulled out a bundle of photos before putting the yellow packet to the side and putting the photos in the middle of the bed, for all to see. Simone quickly separated them into group shots and their different locations, and then all of the individual photos in piles corresponding to people. You could clearly tell she had done this same process multiple times before, because from the stack of about a hundred or so photos they were sorted in all of twenty seconds.  
Liam picked up one of the piles of group shots. The photographer had almost too much creativity to make anything salvageable from this shoot, luckily there were about five or six that weren’t horrendous. The others were like a car accident, you want to look away really badly, but there is something that draws an intangible string between the two, making it impossible to look away. They were standing in front of a fountain with open umbrella’s that had held glitter. When they had opened their umbrella’s silver glitter had come flooding out, covering them in the fine dust. All the frames of the first set looked good, the glitter and water that caught the light off of lamp posts looked good. The second take was not as impressive. After they had all of the glitter brushed off them, and had their hair coated in another layer of hairspray- a layer that was literally begging glitter to get stuck to it- and had refilled the umbrellas, they took a second set of pictures. They held the umbrella’s out in front of them, raised them and opened them letting the glitter and (this time) the feathers fall out. Just before they opened them, a massive fan was turned on and the feathers started sticking to clothes and the glitter started tangling with hair. It probably could’ve looked really good with some people and groups, but for them it just looked like a paint spillage in a chicken barn in hell, because, after all, glitter is the devil’s dust.   
Those photos were a poor excuse for photography, well the photos were good, but the subject (them) in the photo looked very flustered; Louis’ hair was stuck up at right angles, and his jacket was covered in green feathers, Harry was sneezing in a few frames, from what he could detect as only being red feathers flying near his nose and his hair being attacked by Liam’s umbrella, of which Liam was oblivious to, that and the fact that he wasn’t staring at the camera, again. For whatever reason, Niall actually looked half- decent in the picture. He had glitter stuck to his blonde hair that had some brown roots shooting through, and the light blue feathers that had gathered around his black pants and feet matched his eyes and although the photo was posed, Niall looked totally natural, with one hand in his back pocket, and the other wrapped around the black umbrella, resting it on his shoulder, with his head turned slightly looking at Liam on his right. So maybe Liam thought that Niall looked a little more than okay, he looked borderline hot. Years ago he would only have ever described Niall as ‘cute’, ‘funny’ or ‘Irish’, now they seemed less prominent, as some his other features came through. He was definitely more toned in recent years, and he could now notice how nicely sculpted his jawline was, now that he thought about it.   
Except, he couldn’t remember when he started thinking about it. He did not think about his fellow bandmates that way, ever. They were his closest friends, and since when did he admire the way their jaw line looked, or how glitter stuck to their hair, it didn’t happen. It wasn’t supposed to happen. He was a guy, Niall was also a guy, and Liam was sure that they were both straight, because even after his slight mental fiasco earlier in the day over a slightly shirtless Niall, he still was completely convinced that he was straight. But it’s not like he lays around the place casually debating his sexuality.  
“Are there any good one’s in that bunch?” Niall asked Liam.  
“Yeah, a couple.”  
“Which ones?” Simone asked.  
Liam showed her the first ones that looked better, as well as slipping in the disaster filled one that happened to also contain the candid looking Niall, and subconsciously that was why Liam didn’t tell Simone that he thought it looked not so great.   
As Liam and Simone discussed the finer points of his singular shots Niall looked through the small stack of his solo shots. They were all of him sitting on a wooden- backed chair in different positions. They were all pretty good and obviously some were better than others, but he flipped through until he found an anomaly. One of Liam’s photos had made it into his pile. Liam was standing with one foot crossed over the other, resting next to his ankle, with his hand brushing across his chin as he looked to his right, because in traditional Liam fashion, he looking anywhere but at the camera. He was wearing a sleeveless shirt that left a certain definition of his arm muscles, he was, after all, very fit and had very toned body. Toned body? No, ‘toned’ wasn’t the right word. Maybe, he had a very sculpted body? That didn’t sound right either… a very hot body…? Well… he kind of did, but that still didn’t seem to fit. He finally settled with robust, because that frankly sounded better than saying that Liam had a hot body.   
He probably should’ve just put the photo in its correct pile, and maybe with a little more sleep, and a little less sugar he would of. But for some reason he quickly folded it up, and with a flick of his eyes towards the others, he slipped it into his back pocket. He then proceeded to continue looking through all of the photos taking a special, subconscious interest in anyone of the ones that had a good angle of Liam in them, and allowed his glance to linger on them just a few seconds longer.   
A while later Harry decided to grace the rest of them with his presence, and he was feeling better. When they showed him the photos he agreed that they all looked great, save the first group shot that Liam looked at, the one that was now called the ‘Friends shoot’ because Harry thought that the first set, with just the umbrellas and the fountain looked like the opening credits of the television show.   
They spent the next hours watching television and goofing off, even going as far as playing football in the hallways, until the clock eventually rolled around to the time that meant they had to all pile into the vans and make their way to their performance venue. One of the things that Niall had come to notice about cities on their first tour, was that the city lights looked really nice at night. Some people hate them because they believe that they symbolise industrialisation or urbanisation, and associate those words with globalisation and all other horrific, world- ending, over-dramatised half-truths. (A/N- I’m not saying it is un-true, just that some people take it way too far)Niall, on the other hand, thought that the city lights looked quite amazing, and that the further away you were, the better they looked. The bright building signs that shone their luminescence onto the clouds and the water. It was really quite a sight. He admired these sights as he let the conversation float around him. They were five minutes from the venue when the rain started. Large, fat drops rolling down the windows, blurring the city lights. He flicked his eyes to the sky and saw the dark, grey clouds looming over the skyline. He was glad that they were playing an indoor venue, because, judging from the clouds, they would get very, very wet otherwise.


	5. Chapter 5- A Phobia of Thunder

Chapter 5- A Phobia of Thunder  
A/N- Hello lovelies, I know this chapter took longer than normal to get up, but it is longer than usual, this was ten pages on word. Please enjoy   
They had almost finished their set list when it started raining, storming- thundering; big, fat splatters on the roof. The power had kept cutting in and out during their performance of “A.M.” and continued to do so until they finished singing “Home” and made their way off the stage. They had then continued to let people usher them from place to place, as they posted ‘after show’ selfies on Instagram and Twitter. They were all sitting backstage where it was eerily quiet, except for the voices of the stage crew, security, and the rest of their tour group buzzing around. When Louis had looked out the window the rain had drowned out the screams of the few remaining fans, the rest of whom had been chased off by the weather.  
They were ushered outside into separate vans. The street was littered with signs left from fans abandoning them for warmth and shelter. The colours, work and effort draining from the pages of cardboard and down the drain. They made their way back to their hotel with minimal traffic due to the storming weather and trying to avoid getting completely soaked as best they could when getting out of the vans and running into the hotel. Louis and Liam were practically drenched from grabbing each other to stop the other from getting under the shelter and away from the rain that then progressed to them wrestling on the floor, splashing through puddles. That was, of course, until they’d been told to stop, to get up, but since it was the same stuff they’d been told for almost the past six years, there was little chance they’d listen to it. Although Louis did eventually when there was a loud thunder crack and he froze up, and Liam helped him to his feet.  
Louis had a thing about thunder, not a fear or a phobia, but a deep, deep concern that gave him a fright. They’d all assumed that it would pass with time, but it hadn’t. If the rest of them were being honest they were glad that he hadn’t freaked mid- concert. Fortunately, the thunder hadn’t started until after that and up until now, he’d been distracted.  
“Let’s go, Lou,” Harry said taking his hand, and wrapping an arm around Louis’ shoulders and leading him into the hotel with Niall and Liam trailing behind him.  
Liam shook his hair out, successfully flicking Niall in the process.  
“Okay, honestly, Li, if you can do that,” he said referring to his hair flicking, water splashing ability, “you are becoming the new Harry, which means you need a haircut.”  
“Sure, I’ll make sure Lou gives me a haircut, only if you get her to cut yours as well.”  
“It’s not that long,” Niall protested, “I like it this length, the fans like it this length.”  
“That’s the longest that you’ve let your hair grow since we were in X-Factor,” Liam pointed out.  
“I’m surprised they’ve let me keep it this long,” Niall said, “thought they’d be afraid that it’d ruin our ‘image’.”  
“Some days, I understand why Zayn left,” Liam commented quietly.  
Niall turned to him, “You wouldn’t consider-” he dropped off, deciding mid- question that he didn’t necessarily want to know the answer.  
“No, no,” he reassured quickly, “no, I would never be able to go ahead with it. There isn’t anything else that I’d want to do but this, and I couldn’t do this on my own.”  
“Same,” Niall agreed, “that was my plan when I auditioned as a solo act, plus I didn’t have a band or anything to go as a group, but I’m glad they put us together.”  
“Me too,” he smiled at the memory, “otherwise being trapped in a hotel all day would get really boring.”  
“True.”  
After Liam and Louis had dried off and changed out of their wet clothes, they all congregated in Harry’s room where someone had materialised a box of Monopoly and set it out on the floor. With Liam playing banker, Niall on real estate, and Louis perched on top of Harry’s bed the game was going well.  
When it was Louis’ turn he demanded for someone to pass him the dice, and Niall flung them at his face with a terrible aim that caused Louis to roll across the bed to try and catch them. He rolled double fives and advanced his wagon to a ‘Chance’ square he picked up his card that read: GO DIRECTLY TO JAIL, DO NOT PASS GO. DO NOT COLLECT TWO HUNDRED POUNDS.  
“No,” Louis cried, “Not again! I was only there last round.”  
No one offered him any sympathy thanks to the fact that he had out- bid everyone else for the properties that he wanted with ridiculous amounts.  
“Harry sell me you get out of jail free card,” Louis instructed on his next turn.  
“No.”  
“Why not?”  
“You offered a 1500 bid to get Oxford Street. Not because you wanted it, because you didn’t want Harry to get it and start putting houses on it,” Liam reminded.  
“That’s no reason for him to refuse to sell me my freedom,” Louis argued.  
“Yes, it is,” Harry agreed.  
“How much do you want for it?” Louis asked.  
“How much do you have?”  
Louis started counting his money- not that there was much of it. The problem was, that he had spent the first rounds purchasing everything he landed on and buying properties at auction for ridiculous amounts. Which now left him very, very broke.  
“One hundred and six,” he replied.  
Harry laughed, “You’re not buying my get out of jail card for one hundred and six pounds,” Louis sighed, “it’s just not happening Lou.”  
Then he shot up from the edge of the bed and crash tackled Harry onto the floor shouting, “GIVE ME THE CARD HARRY! I WANT MY FREEDOM.”  
Harry grabbed Louis’ arms and pinned them to his sides and calmly said, “And I want more than you’re willing to offer.”  
Louis’ glance shuffled slightly with a confused yet mischievous glint in his eye, “What are you getting at Styles?” he asked cautiously.  
“I want you to mortgage a property.”  
Louis raised an eyebrow, “Which one?” he asked sceptically, leaning a little closer to Harry’s face, with the intent of being intimidating.  
“Oxford Street.”  
Louis thought about it for a minute, considering Harry’s offer, “No.”  
“Why?”  
“Because I don’t want to.”  
Harry pushed Louis off him, muttering, ‘spoil sport,’ under his breath.  
The game continued with fun poking, and a subdued rivalry, that was only encouraged when Liam stopped on both Park Lane and Mayfair in the one round. Niall owned both of the properties and had two houses on both of them, making the rent in total a whopping 1200 pounds. The competition between the two continued for a couple of rounds until Harry had to mortgage Fenchurch Station, which Liam then bought to complete his set and to up his rent. Then to Niall’s dismay karma kicked in on his next roll when he landed on Marylebone station and had to pay 200 in rent to Liam, and then not too soon afterwards having to pay 80 pounds rent to Harry for rolling an 8 and landing on Water Works.  
The next time somebody checked the clock, they’d been playing for three hours. Harry had mortgaged eight of his eleven properties, including the Electrical Company, and the Water Works, leaving only: The Strand, Fleet Street, and Trafalgar Square to save him from bankruptcy, and with only one house on Trafalgar, things were not looking good. Even Niall, who had been playing fairly smart the whole game, was starting to descend. So they called it quits, and quickly declared Niall the winner based purely on the fact that he had a hotel on Park Lane, and three houses on Mayfair, the two most expensive properties in the game, then shoved the board to one side and said their good nights.  
When Niall walked into his room, he saw the wind whipping the rain and leaves to crash onto his window. The city lights outside where now reduced to a dull blur, a smear of colour across the water- washed sky. Sparks and flashes of lightening darted through the blank abyss, leaving the dull roar of thunder in their wake. With the seemingly never ending cloud cover over head, the chances of the storm clearing overnight were slim.  
\--  
A while after they’d all gone to bed, and whilst Harry was drifting in and out of sleep there was a knock on his door. He knew who it would be, only one person that couldn’t sleep through a thunder storm by themselves.  
He stood up and dragged himself to the door, and opened it, sliding the bolt off as he did so.  
“Can’t sleep?” Harry asked.  
Louis nodded, “Yeah.”  
“The storm?” Harry asked.  
“Yeah.”  
Harry stepped back and held the door open wider, a gesture that granted Louis entrance into the room. Wordlessly, he walked in and slipped off his shoes, shoving his hands in his pockets and pressing his toes into carpet, staring off into space when thunder from the ever- worsening storm struck again.  
Harry locked the door and walked over to hug Louis from behind, resting his head on his shoulder. Louis, stood mainly frozen, but leant into Harry’s touch, stretching his arms backwards to oddly wrap around Harry.  
“Lou,” Harry whispered in his ear, “the storm will be gone in the morning,” he pressed a kiss below his ear, feeling Louis shiver slightly at the action.  
“Harry,” Lou asked quietly.  
“Yeah.”  
“Can I stay with you again tonight?”  
“Of course, Lou.”  
Slowly, afterwards, Louis released his grip on Harry and crawled into one side of the bed. Harry joined him almost instantly after, getting back into his bed and cuddling down into Louis’ chest, where he was encased in comforting arms. Safe, he felt safe, and although he was not the one who couldn’t sleep because of the storm, knowing that Louis would be able to sleep through the storm, made him feel like what they were doing was right.  
“You’re like a giant teddy bear, Haz,” Louis said sleepily.  
Harry smiled, he liked the idea of being Louis’ teddy bear, even if only for a little while. Selfishly he wished it would storm like this every night, only so he could get held by Louis every night as they slept lying atop one another.  
\--  
Somewhere in the hotel, the early morning news presenters discussed the weather on the radio, broadcasting their concerns to anyone listening.  
(Male Reporter): Good morning to all of you up this early on this not so cheerful Sunday.  
(Female Reporter): You should be warned that flash flooding is expected in most rural areas and some suburban areas of eastern and mid New South Wales. Meteorologists have also reported the early stages of what they are currently declaring to be a level 2 cyclone about 230 kilometres off the coast of Newcastle, but they say to listen out for new information, as we will be reporting it as we receive it.  
(Male Reporter): So for all of you who don’t speak meteorology, it’s going to be wet, wet, wet and very windy so stay off the roads please don’t do anything stupid.  
When Harry and Louis woke the next morning to the thudding, repetitive drilling of rain on the windows and roof neither of them had any idea of the overnight developments in the meteorology department. As they slept their bodies had ended up in a tangle of limbs, intertwined under the warm comfort of the sheets and blankets.  
Harry woke up first, still wrapped in Louis’ small arms, he was smiling in his sleep, Harry wondered what about. He started, carefully, pulling his legs out from underneath Louis’ he stretched himself out; rolling his feet to let his ankles crack, and rolling his head around to pop out the muscle stiffness in his neck. He rolled over and pulled his phone off charge to check the time, it was six forty- four, which meant he didn’t have to be up yet, but he didn’t see himself getting back to sleep anytime in the near future, for a measly half hour of tossing and turning.  
He felt Louis shift beside him and looked over, he was still asleep, for now. He eventually woke up a good ten minutes later stretching his back out like a cat, and letting out a yawn.  
“Morning, Harry,” he said with a deep husky, morning voice, rolling over to face Harry.  
“Good morning, Lou,” Harry replied tilting his head to look at him.  
Louis had a serious case of bed head, like always, and very tired eyes. They almost looked like they were circled with dark eyeliner, almost also though Lou had come in, in the middle of the night and decided to use his face as a canvas. Although, Harry could probably stare at him for a fair amount of time, and let the rain lull him back to sleep, eventually. Instead he rolled over and shrugged out of bed, and he lazily trudged over to the window. He pulled the curtains open, and there was no change in the amount of light that entered the room.  
“Has the rain stopped?” Louis asked sleepily, he had his head buried in the pillow.  
“It’s raining cats and dogs out there,” Harry said, Louis smiled at the sound of his morning voice, “but no thunder.”  
“Good,” Louis said sitting up, “Rain is fine.”  
“Yeah, well I was hoping for some sun whilst we were in Australia,” Harry admitted.  
“Yes, because you and sunshine are a great combination,” Louis imputed sarcastically.  
“I was going to wear sun cream this time Louis-”  
“Even a hat would’ve been an improvement,” he interrupted.  
“I didn’t know it got so hot over here in the summer,” he argued pathetically. Globally Australia was known as a country with nine of the ten most deadly snakes, and some of the hottest weather, for developed nations. From Louis’ perspective, Harry had simultaneously under and over packed for; a mistake that wardrobe had made sure he didn’t make this year.  
Louis gave up on the banter and checked the time on Harry’s phone.  
“We’ve got breakfast in fifteen,” he said.  
“Yeah, I want to finish packing before breakfast,” Harry replied, before adding, “Probably should’ve gone to bed earlier,” as an afterthought.  
“Did I wake you last night?” Louis asked, with a slight nervousness.  
“Kind of,” Harry admitted.  
“I’m sorry,” Louis looked guilty.  
“I was in that weird stage where you’re almost asleep, but you’re still, like oddly aware of stuff happening around you,” Harry clarified, “But, I don’t mind. Not one bit,” Harry said turning to face Louis.  
“M’sorry about it,” Louis started, “it’s just the thunder…” he trailed off.  
Harry went over and sat cross-legged facing Louis’ side, “You don’t need to explain.”  
Louis turned to Harry, “Thank you,” he said quietly.  
Louis leaned in and captured Harry’s lips. Harry froze momentarily, caught off guard, although Louis was always the one to initiate things, he hadn’t expected it. Even last time, last time there hadn’t been any warning, but unlike last time, it was soft and caring. Last time it was fast and heated, with both of them wanting the other so desperately. This time their lips moved together like melted wax, their bodies ebbing and flowing against each other. Louis moved his hand up, placing it gently on Harry’s face, his fingertips stroking the roots of his hair.  
Louis’ hand travelled further up Harry’s hair, pulling on a bunch of curls, and eliciting a small moan from the back of Harry’s throat, which Louis muffled with his own mouth. Harry pushed harder against Louis, who took it as an invitation to slip his tongue out to teasingly rub against Harry’s bottom lip.  
Harry pulled back, smiling, “You’re such a tease,” he said with a small laugh, shaking his head, letting the laughter dissipate as his smile dropped.  
“What?” Louis asked, a look of concern brushing the features of his face.  
Harry sighed, “Lou,” he said softly, “we tried this, we’ve done this before.”  
“I know, Hazza.”  
“Back then, before they found out,” Harry said, “but what are we doing, now?”  
“I don’t know, Louis admitted, “I guess I just want those days back, back on the X-factor, before management came along and screwed it up,” he looked down, “it worked back then, it was good back then,” he stressed.  
“Yeah,” Harry agreed, “but if you want to try that again, I doubt management will be happy with it.”  
“They can shove it,” Louis stated bluntly,  
“Didn’t you try telling them that last time?” Harry asked with a small laugh in attempt to ease the tension.  
“Yeah, yeah. I did,” he replied with a small smile, “maybe this time we could learn from our mistakes.”  
“What?”  
“What if we just don’t tell them?” he suggested hesitantly.  
“I like the idea, but think about it, Lou,” Louis sighed as Harry continued, “having to hide it… I’m not sure…”  
“We could tell the boys, and maybe a couple others, but not anyone that will let it get back to them.”  
“What about the fans? There’s no way we could tell them without management finding out.”  
“Well,” Louis started with a mischievous smile on his lips, and a glint in his eye, “we can always go back to being less subtle.”  
“And by less subtle you mean about as subtle as a brick through a window.”  
“Oh Haz,” Louis cooed half mockingly, “you know me so well.”  
Harry laughed, and leaned back on Louis, who wrapped his arms around his stomach and pressed a kiss into his hair.  
There was a knock on Harry’s door, causing them to both it up “You up?” Liam asked.  
“Yeah,” Harry called back.  
“Is Tommo in there with you?”  
Harry shot Louis a panicked look, he nodded then hollered out loudly, “Yeah, Payno I’m in here.”  
“Well Paul wants everybody out here now.”  
“Okay,” Louis called back, before turning to Harry saying, “I have to go change.”  
“Yeah,” Harry agreed, although his mind was elsewhere, “It’d look weird, if you left wearing that,” he said referring to Louis’ briefs and old, stained shirt look.  
“Yeah, um.”  
“Just wear something of mine,” Harry said quietly, “I mean only if you want to.”  
“They’ll be too big,” Louis said, “but that’ll make them comfy.”  
“Well I like to think that my clothes are always comfy, thank you.”  
Louis smiled, and let out a small laugh.

They both dressed in Harry’s clothes, Louis in the less eccentric style, and emerged later, making their way to the room they knew Paul would be in. So many people were crammed into the one room, all looking as though they’d been up for a while. They went to find Niall and Liam, who were standing in the corner on the other side of the room.  
“What’s going on?” Harry asked Liam.  
He shrugged, “Beats me,” he replied.  
The lights in the room flickered and everyone’s gaze drifted upwards, then a flash of lightening swam across the sky, and Louis’ hand found Harry’s as he braced himself for the loud growl of thunder. Letting out a shaky breath as the thunder sounded, Niall piped up, “It’s probably got something to do with the weather.”  
Liam nodded his head in agreement, “Maybe there’s something wrong with transport.”  
“I’d be surprised in this weather if anyone’s moving anywhere,” Niall added.  
“Alright everyone,” Paul spoke, letting everyone’s attention fall to him, “Due to these extreme weather conditions and the level 2 cyclone warning that’s been issued, and the flash flooding. We are unable to get to Brisbane for our next show.”  
The room flooded with conversation, “I didn’t want to be right,” Liam muttered.  
“What does this mean for the rest of the tour?” Louis asked.  
They all shook their heads, Liam exhaled and blew his lips apart, “I don’t know.”  
“Okay, quiet down everyone,” Paul spoke over the noise, “At this moment we don’t have much of a clue of what’s going to happen with the rest of the tour. Most likely we will have to unfortunately cancel or postpone the rest of our shows in Australia, but that depends on the extent of the damage when the storm blows over. And until then no one leaves their bus, or this hotel. It’s just too dangerous.”  
Paul stopped speaking, and the conversations slowly filtered away from him, as he made his way over to the boys.  
“Cancel?” Liam asked.  
“I’m afraid so,” he replied, “and I’m sorry to confine you to the hotel again, but anyone who goes out in this weather is a mad man, it’s only supposed to get worse.”  
“Yeah, no. We understand, Paul,” Louis said.  
“Well, it’ll give you some time to write.”  
“Yeah, yeah,” Liam said, his eyes bright at the thought of more time to write, “That’s a good idea actually.”  
“Probably not to record though, if there are any blackouts, and it cuts or anything, it just makes it unpredictable.”  
They all nodded in understanding.  
“So, get comfy boys, it’s going to be a long few days.”  
Niall rolled his head backwards, “Noooo,” he complained, “I don’t want to be stuck in this hotel.”  
“It’s alright, Ni,” Liam said, putting an arm around Niall’s shoulders, “Is it any consolation if I say that it’s not just you?”  
Niall smiled warmly back at Liam, “Still doesn’t change the weather.”  
They all laughed.  
“Come on lads,” Louis said, “who’s up for hallway footie?”  
“Me!” Niall called as he started running out into the hallway, they all laughed as they ran out after him.  
They played a quick game of hallway football, before Niall started complaining about being hungry, so at that point they went and got food. The day progressed from there, with everyone finding something to do, whether it be sleep, wreak havoc, or to order copious amounts of food from room service, they all found a way to keep occupied. At some point Louis had convinced the receptionist to let him play the piano in the auditorium, which had ended with him playing random melodies and writing half- decent lyrics.  
Harry heard the melodic sounds of the piano, and figured that where ever it was coming from was where Louis had disappeared to. He walked through the foyer, following the soft music into a large carpeted room. There was crimson-mauve carpet with intricate gold patterns, and a large seating area with rows of chairs and a long aisle down the middle. He looked up at the roof, flat wooden panels, sat, evenly spaced along the surface, it looked like a theatre, a small theatre, but a theatre none-the-less. On the other side of the room there was a small stage, with three steps either side leading up onto a black- floored stage. Sitting at a piano next to the stairs on the right- hand side of the stage was Louis.  
Harry walked over to him, making sure to roll through his feet from heel to toe to make sure that Louis didn’t hear him.  
It didn’t work.  
As he approached, Louis’ hands dropped from the keys, as he turned his head to look at Harry.  
“You working on anything?” Harry asked.  
Louis shook his head, “Nah, not really. It’s just a melody, I’m sort of playing around with.”  
“Can I hear it?” Harry asked hesitantly, Louis had started playing less and less over the years, so Harry thought that he would probably be very guarded around his ideas and such.  
“Sure.”  
Harry sat down on the seat next to Louis. After a moment he began to play, he started on a high note, playing slowly; one key at a time, a tune that gradually got faster, until he brought his left hand in and it changed completely, instantly Harry was mesmerised. The way the fingers on his right hand floated across the keys, gently caressing the notes as they spilled out of the instrument, was a stark contrast to how his left hand played the chords. Instead of floating they moved with less grace, and more purpose. Harry’s eyes stuck to Louis’ hands, watching them, with an almost child-like glee as they flittered across the keys before coming to a stop.  
“I like that,” Harry said, breathlessly.  
Louis looked up at Harry’s face, he was grinning wildly, like a Cheshire cat, with his little dimples showing. It made Louis’ insides warm, it had been too long since Harry had smiled at him like that and it brought a smile to his face as well.  
“I like it too, it was kind of whatever, but with some lyrics, it’ll be this album’s If I Could Fly.”  
“Yeah,” Harry agreed.  
And just like that a pen and some paper scraps emerged and they started writing. Although neither had said it, the song was pretty much a slightly altered version of their past encounter with the dark side of management. They’d written songs before inspired by the other, like Strong, 18, and Loved You First, and Perfect, but the media has written it off as Harry firing back at Taylor in the bridge, so they still weren’t sure if that was a good or bad thing, but they’d never written a song that was about their past, they’d been all too subtle for that.  
They ended up with some lyrics, and a basic piano melody, as they wrote more, it would probably grow and change, but for now the lyrics went a little something like:  
A memory, a photograph  
You look at them and cry  
All the things that could’ve been  
We were too scared to try

I can’t believe you look at me  
And it’s all over like that  
I turn around and realise  
You’re never coming back

We were kept, all barred up,  
As a secret, we were hidden  
Oh, if only we had tried  
To keep it less forbidden  
We wouldn’t be a secret hidden  
But it is what it is  
It is what it is

“I like this idea,” Harry said, “but if we call it, ‘It is what it is’, we’re kind of getting rid of all subtlety.”  
“Yep,” Louis said, “it’s what we were talking about earlier.”  
Harry tilted his head to rest it on Louis’ shoulder, “I don’t want this to end bad this time,” he said in a smaller voice, “Remember what happened last time?”  
“Love, we just wrote a song about how bad it got last time, and I don’t want it to go that bad again.”  
“Okay.”  
“This time, we know what happens, and we can be ready.”  
Harry turned his head and kissed Louis’ cheek, “Okay.”  
A/N- Please leave a kudos and comment- also these lyrics are written by me, as well as every other part of the song. Next chapter is Niam, I hope I have satisfied everyone looking for some Larry fluff. 

TheUsualSuspect xx


	6. Chapter 6- Dangerous Thoughts

Chapter 6- Dangerous Thoughts   
A/N- Thank you to my close friend for the idea that spurred this chapter. I guarantee this chapter wouldn’t be up without your help.  
(Briefly edited)   
Harry had wondered off a couple of hours ago to find Louis, he hadn’t come back yet, so he’d clearly found him. They were probably writing, and so should have Niall and Liam because as they got closer and closer to their deadline, they found less and less inspiration to write. It was the one thing that Liam wanted to accomplish whilst the storm prevented them from travelling. It just wasn’t working.  
Liam slumped his head against the table, “I am so close to smashing my head against this table until I get some sort of idea,” Liam commented, with his face squashed against the table.   
Niall was playing GTA on the Xbox, but keeping the volume down so that Liam could attempt to concentrate. He kept up conversation, because it’s rude to ignore people in the same room as you, but he wasn’t really paying attention, so he replied with, “Don’t do that Li,” as he drove a stolen car through a window and was currently fighting incoming traffic, his thoughts were elsewhere.  
Liam noticed this, “I think I might just call Cheryl and ask for her back.”  
“Mm-hmm,” Niall agreed, as he jumped his car over the side divider, trying to escape from the cops,” Great idea, Li.”  
“Maybe I’ll gouge my eyes out with spoons,” he suggested.  
“That doesn’t sound so bad,” Niall replied, he’d now ditched the car, and was evading the police on foot, in search of another vehicle.  
Liam suppressed a laugh, and internally face-palmed. Niall was definitely not listening to him, so he made another suggestion, louder this time, “Actually now that I think about it, I should probably just go and walk around the hotel completely naked…”  
“Great, that’ll be epic!” Niall said enthusiastically, whilst beating the shit out of a Porsche owner and “commandeering” it.  
Liam couldn’t bottle his laughter anymore, so he let out a long spluttering laugh.  
“What, Payno?” Niall asked, finally pausing GTA to turn and look at Liam.  
“You weren’t listening to what I was saying,” he explained.  
“Okay, and say I wasn’t,” Niall started, “Why would that be a funny thing?”  
“Because when I suggested that I thought it would be a good idea for me to walk around naked, you acted like it was the best suggestion anyone had ever suggested.”  
Niall blushed, “Yeah, okay, so I may have only been listening with one ear,” he admitted, what he didn’t admit, was that he would be up for that. Liam was a fine specimen, and had a very nice body, and Niall wouldn’t mind an opportunity to stare at him with a little less on. Of course, he would rather be burnt alive, with fireworks lodged inside him than to ever admit that out loud.  
“I don’t think you were listening with either ear, Ni.”  
“I was listening enough to register that you had spoken,” Niall argued.  
“Yeah, yeah,” Liam laughed it off, “go back to your GTA, Niall before the power goes and you lose it for actual conversation,” Liam cheekily remarked.  
“Ha,” he responded dryly, pressing play on his game.  
Liam turned back to his page, crossed out lines and half- hearted rhymes. There really wasn’t any inspiration for him to draw from; on the page, or anywhere else. Some people perform well under pressure, and in most cases, Liam does; unfortunately, when he needs his creative juices flowing so that he can write, it doesn’t work. Sitting down with a piece of paper and a pen, or standing in a recording studio jamming with his mates, if there’s a heavy deadline hanging over his shoulder’s, the writing either won’t happen or will be absolutely terrible.   
“No,” Liam decided, “I’m not doing this now.”   
“What?” Niall asked.  
“It’s just not working.”  
“What isn’t?”  
“Writing.”  
“Writing what?”  
“Lyrics, Niall. What else do you think I’d be writing?”  
“Your diary,” he joked.  
“I don’t have a diary,” Liam said, flopping onto the couch next to Niall.  
“If you say so,” Niall said sceptically.  
“I do say so,” Liam defended himself, before adding, “On our first tour I had a travel journal. I wanted to write a little bit about every place we went. That lasted for less than half the tour.”  
Being an interest of the media, lying, deceiving, or telling half-truths, unfortunately, came as a second nature. Another issue with being such a media interest was that it sometimes became too much. All the rumours and the conspiracies, the lack of freedom and the arguments with management. You need a place for it, some way to privately un- bottle it. Writing it down works and, sadly, Liam has recently started writing things down more.   
Liam rolled his head back, and cracked his shoulders out; he was fidgety and uninspired, two things that were pissing him off.   
“They have a gym here, right?” Liam asked Niall.  
“Yep, think so.”  
“Okay, I’m going to the gym then,” he decided.  
“Mm’kay, I think it’s near the pool, and I want a swim. So I might meet you down there.”  
“Okay,” Liam said fishing around in his bag for some gym attire.   
Sometime later Liam found himself swinging at the punching bag in the hotel gym, he had his headphones in, going at a steady rhythm; starting out slowly, before building to the point where he was possibly throwing too much shoulder into his punches. He followed a pattern, jab, jab, jab, punch left, punch right, jab right, repeat. He continued his workout, unknown to the fact that a pair of ocean blue eyes were watching him through the glass that separated the pool and gym.   
Niall walked along the side of the pool, watching Liam through the glass. He dipped his foot into the supposedly heated pool, it was warm, not spa temperature warm, but relatively pleasant. He shimmied out of his shirt, leaving it shredded along the edge. He shot another glance through the glass, Liam still hadn't noticed his presence, seemingly distracted by the treadmill and something out the window. Niall had no clue as to what it could be; the water-logged streets and rain washed ground was hardly anything new. He resumed jogging on the treadmill, his pectorals pulsing as he swung his arms back and forth, in time with his abs flexing as he took breaths in and let them out. Niall realised that he was staring, and averted his eyes from Liam, and back to the pool.

He enjoyed the over-chlorinated water of the pool and the serene quiet, as he floated around on the surface, listening to the blood rushing through his ears. It was peaceful, just time to forget everything else, forget they were on tour, forget they were stuck in terrible weather on the other side of the world, and to forget that Liam was shirtless behind only a pane of glass and that his photo was in the back of his jeans pocket in his room.

As Niall was laying, completely immersed in the water, he didn't hear the door open. Or the footsteps across the room. He didn't even hear a foot splashing the surface of the water. He had no idea that anyone else was in the room until the heard the almighty splash as they bombed into the pool. Niall stopped floating and looked to see who it was as they emerged from the water. Curious, but the brown hair gave it away instantly.   
"Leeyum!" Niall complained.  
"What for?" he asked.  
'For being this close to me shirtless' Niall thought.  
"For disturbing my peace," he replied childishly, before splashing Liam.  
"Well, be glad you found peace in here, cause there's only chaos out there," Liam replied, splashing Niall back.  
He stepped back slightly, rubbing at his eye, "That was right in me eye," he said, "right in my eye, Payno," he mumbled quieter, before lashing back. 

A water fight ensued.

They both had different plans of attack. Niall stuck to his method of skimming his arm across the surface quickly, a short range attack that did widespread 'damage'. Liam, on the other hand, cupped his hands together and flicked them onto the water causing short bolts to shoot across the pool: short, but long range, and ultimately the most effective method. Niall's arms got sore after a while and decided that he would instead attempt to declare himself the winner by launching himself onto Liam's back and forcing him to the surface. Liam pushed him off, and they broke apart both laughing. They floated to opposite ends of the pool and Niall shivered.   
"You cold?" Liam asked.  
"A little bit," he admitted.  
"Come on then," Liam said, lifting himself up onto the edge of the pool, "Spa or sauna?"  
"Spa," he decided.  
"Okay."

They walked over to the spa and got in. Liam found the button for the jets and turned them on.   
“So warm in here,” Niall commented, dragging out the ‘o’s’. He sat on the far side of the spa with his eyes closed and his head slumped back on the blue tiled wall.  
“Mmhmm,” Liam agreed, words slurred a bit because he was so tired.   
They sat in silence until Liam decided that it would be a great idea to let his hands wonder over to Niall’s bare stomach and tickle him. Niall jumped at the sensation and surprise. He tried to get away from Liam’s searching hands, but his other arm wrapped around Niall and pulled him closer. Niall kicked and thrashed against Liam’s hold, splashing water everywhere; his howling laughter echoing off the walls of the room.   
“AHHH,” he laughed, “let me go, Payno.”  
Liam laughed as well, “Not a chance, I’m getting inspiration for a song.”  
“FROM WHAT?” Niall asked, exasperated, but still laughing, “MY TORMENT?”  
Liam kept laughing, “Sure.”  
Niall became breathless and gave up on resisting, so Liam stopped tickling him, but didn’t let go of him. There was about an inch of water missing from the spa now, and Niall was practically sitting in Liam’s lap.   
“You ‘inspired’ now?” Niall asked.  
“Right now?” he asked.  
“Right now,” Niall sang.  
“I wish you were here with me,” Liam continued.  
“News flash, Payno, I’m right here.”  
“You know I can’t fight this feeling.”  
“And every night I feel it.”  
“Right now.”  
“I wish you were here with me,” Niall finished, letting the air sit between them for a minute before asking, “are you inspired yet?”.  
“Nope.”  
Niall thought for a while before he started singing, “Gave you all I had and you tossed it in the trash, tossed it in the trash yes you did. To give me all your love was all I ever asked cause what you don’t understand-”  
“Is I’d catch a grenade for you. Throw my hand on the blade for you, I’d jump in front of a train for you. You know I’d do anything for you.”  
Niall joined in for the next verse as Liam continued singing, “Black, black, black and blue, beat me til’ I’m numb tell the devil I said ‘hey’ when you get back to where you’re from,” letting Liam go up on that last note, “mad woman, bad woman, that’s just what you are, yeah you’ll smile in my face then rip the breaks out my car,” Liam stopped.  
“I think I might have an idea.”  
“Yay, does this mean no more tickling?”   
Liam nodded, “Okay, I’m gonna go back upstairs to get it down on paper,” he let go of Niall.  
“Yeah, I want a shower, and then I’m tracking down Harry and Louis, we’re doing something tonight,” he said getting up and out of the spa, “Don’t ask me what, but we are doing something.”  
“Okay,” Liam agreed as he followed him back upstairs, into Niall’s room so that Niall could shower, and Liam could write.   
He had an unusual idea; gained in the oddest way, and although it was a good idea, his feelings about it were very mixed. His feelings about him were very mixed. He knew that it was how Harry and Louis started; writing about each other, before they fought and spent the better half of two years not speaking. It was a miracle that they had salvaged what was left of their friendship. It was just when he heard the blond laugh, it was as though someone had replaced the light bulb in the room with a brighter bulb. It was like spring; everything was brighter, more vibrant, and it made Liam laugh too, it made everyone else laugh, it was so contagious, just like his smile.  
His thoughts were dangerous, and if anyone, especially Niall, read anything into these lyrics, it would be an awkward conversation, and he’d essentially be screwed. Nevertheless, and even though he knew the consequences if he was found out. He started writing.  
You have a smile. You have a laugh  
A heart of pure gold  
There’s no one here, or in the world   
Of that, I am sure  
No one can capture all of it  
And what, it beholds  
A voice came from the next room, “Liam,” Niall called, “Are you still here?”  
“Yeah,” he called back.  
Liam turned around and saw that Niall was doing the thing again, he was walking around in only a towel again. Only in a god damned towel, a towel that was sitting rather low… too low. So low in fact, that Liam could see the waistline of his briefs. Liam flicked his eyes up to Niall’s.  
“How’s the writing goin’?”   
“Erm, kind of alright.”  
“That’s good, I’ll probably write when we get our break next month,” Niall said pulling a shirt on and dropping the towel from his waist whilst fishing around for some pants.  
Liam looked back down at his note book.  
“Yeah,” he mumbled, although he had caught barely any of what Niall had said. He shook his head clear, “You going to find Haz and Lou?”   
“Yeah, any idea where I should start looking?” Niall asked, walking around to the door.  
“I don’t know, I think there’s a piano in the auditorium downstairs or something,” Niall gave him an odd look “I read it somewhere,” he explained, “and if they’re writing, start there.”  
“Okay, thanks.”  
Liam watched him leave, was he intentionally shimming and shaking his skinny ass out of there? Was he an intentional tease… Probably not. It’s not like he had an ass to shake, but there were still other things that Liam could do to an ass like that.  
Oh fuck. Liam dropped his head on the table groaning in frustration. Shit. Shit, shit, shit.  
“Shit,” he mumbled, “I’m so screwed.” How the fuck is this happening, since when is this happening? Not good.   
\--  
Sometime later Niall walked back into his room, laughing loudly- like always, with Harry and Louis in tow.   
“Payno, guess what?” Niall said, with a massive grin on his face.  
“What?” Liam said, sitting up on the lounge.  
“The bar downstairs is doing half- priced bevvies.”  
“Well that’s your scene,” he commented.  
“Ouch that hurts,” Niall said, feigning pain, before he cracked a smile again, and Liam’s heart buzzed, he couldn’t resist smiling back.  
“And this is now your plan for us to do something tonight?”  
“Yep,” he replied enthusiastically.   
The lights flickered, and thunder crackled outside, they ignored it.  
“Are you coming?” Niall asked.  
“Now?” Liam asked sceptically, “Isn’t it a little too early?”  
“Don’t scold him for drinking too early,” Louis joked, “he can’t help it. He’s Irish.”  
Niall turned to face Louis at his comment, “What? Nialler, don’t try and tell me I’m wrong.”  
“You’re wrong,” he said.  
Louis laughed, “Bullshit,” he proclaimed, “I’m right. I’m fabulous. And you know it.”  
“Okay, whatever, I’m down, let’s go.”

Liam deeply regrated those six words later, as he was sitting at a bar stool with a plate of chips and his forth beer in front of him. Niall was on his sixth and still more clear headed than Liam. The other three were playing a non- competitive game of darts, Niall had been winning, before Louis started cheating. He would over exaggerate his aim and lead up, then do a big dramatic movement that let him move forward, putting the odds in his favour. Harry was shit at darts, he just played because Louis and Niall started complaining when he didn’t. There was no other competition and actually no other logical reason as to why Louis was winning, unless he was cheating, or Niall was going easy. Which was likely, he was good even after Zayn made him start playing with his right hand a couple times, so he was disadvantaged.   
They finished the game once Louis had declared himself the winner, to which Niall and Harry just let him have it, since he still hadn’t found a way to cheat in their no stakes poker games yet. They ordered another round of drinks from the bar and sat back on the stools next to Liam. Louis took a look at Liam’s chips and reached his hand into the bowl, only having Liam smack it away.  
“Oi!” Louis exclaimed.  
“Chippy slap,” Liam added as Niall reached over and stole a chip from Liam’s bowl.  
“HEY!” Louis exclaimed, “How come he gets a chip and I don’t?”  
“He didn’t cheat it darts, and he played at a disadvantage,” Liam explained.  
Niall smiled at him. His heart buzzed again. GOD! What the hell was he doing? Never before, never in the almost 6 years that he’d known Niall, NEVER, in all those years did he ever get a tidal wave of butterflies in his stomach when he saw Niall. He knew that he would also never in a million years deserve someone like him. You always want what you can’t have.  
“Li, come on,” Niall said, “You can’t say I play at a disadvantage anymore. Zayn made me play like that for the past three years,” he argued, “I’m practically ambidextrous now.”  
Liam gave him a look as if to say ‘don’t sell yourself short’, before adding, “whatever, it’s still raw talent, mate.”  
Liam picked up his beer and took another sip of it.  
“You should’ve played,” Niall said to Liam, “I like playing darts with you. You’re actually a decent player, unlike these two who can’t play, sorry Haz-”   
“Excuse me,” Harry interrupted, “I can play,” he corrected.  
“Haz we had to explain the rules to you five times before you understood them,” Louis said, “I mean it’s like the easiest game ever.”  
“Like you know the rules,” Niall protested, “Louis, I haven’t ever seen you play by the rules, you can’t talk.”  
“I know the rules I just choose not to follow them,” he replied.  
“Anyway,” Niall said turning back to Liam, “I don’t like playing with someone who can’t, and a cheat,” he concluded, “play another round with me,” he demanded.  
“Sure,” he replied, before drinking the remainder of his bottle. This would be an interesting match.   
They walked over to the dart board, and Niall picked up a black dart with his right hand. Liam put his hand over Niall’s and brought it down, “Play with your left, I’m not going to make you play with a disadvantage,” Liam said softly, “I mean, I’m going to lose either way,” he added in his normal, light tone, “it’ll be worse if I lose with playing a half-arsed game.”  
Niall let out a laugh, “Your pride on the line?” he joked lining up his first shot.  
“Maybe,” Liam mumbled.   
The dart hit the board, just slightly off centre, and the other two grouped around it, closer to the outer edge. Niall walked towards the board and grabbed the darts from the middle, then handed them to Liam.  
Liam moved to where they were throwing from and lined up his shot. His first two hit just inside the triple ring and the last one hit closer to the bullseye.   
He cheered, “Yes.”  
“Whatever,” Niall replied, walking up to the board and grabbing the darts out of it.  
His next few turns were spread around the right of the board, all spread at varying intervals. His results weren’t nearly as good as last time. Whereas, Liam’s, for the most part, were all quite good, even one that hit next to the outer bullseye. They finished up the game as they both got another beer from the bar.  
“You play well,” the lady tending at the bar commented, to Liam.  
“Thanks, but I think he was going easy,” Liam responded, “he’s really good, so we normally make him play with this other hand, but I didn’t want him to play like that, cause it’s unfair.”  
“I see,” she nodded and handed over two beers.

They kept drinking, until Louis decided that he wanted something stronger than the beer in the bar, and stumbled up to their hotel rooms to scavenge the 50ml bottles of slightly stronger alcohol. They all followed him upstairs, and Niall, still the most sober of them all, decided that it wasn’t the greatest idea for Louis to keep drinking, so he swapped his 50ml bottle of vodka to water.   
They were sitting on the couches in Niall’s room when Louis piped up with, a slurred version of, “Let’s play never have I ever.”  
“NO!” Harry protested, “can’t we play something else instead?”  
“Strip poker?” Louis suggested.  
“What?” Liam asked, even in his slightly inebriated state he was still hesitant about this idea.  
“Yeah,” Harry commented, oddly chipper about it, “It’ll be fun.”  
“Payno, remember how much fun it was last time?” Niall said whilst laughing.   
“Last time was not fun,” he replied dryly.  
“Come on, Liam,” Niall begged, “Please?”  
If this idea had of been fronted to them sober, none of them would’ve been saying yes, and that was the only defence that Liam had for his answer.  
“Yeah sure, someone got a deck of cards?”  
“Umm,” Niall got up and looked through the draws in the bedside table, “I haven’t a clue why there’s a deck of cards in here,” he said returning to the floor, “but they’ll do.”  
They decided on what rules to play by: standard, poker 5-card draw, and no bets, whoever wins picks who strips an item, they also decided that they would only play down to their underwear, because although Louis and Harry may have been close to smashed, Liam and Niall still had their heads screwed on right.  
It began with Niall dealing them five cards each, in the end Harry and Niall folded, and Louis beat Liam with a flush. He took off one shoe, Niall dealt out a second hand. Liam looked at his cards, they were worse than his last hand, he hand; two aces, a six of hearts, and a three and eight of spades. As the game went on they only got worse, and every time he got a new card it was worse than the one before. Soon he was sitting in only one sock, pants, and a belt. He kept glancing over at Harry, the bastard was sitting there, fully clothed and not because he was winning, but because Louis was, for the most part.   
Thankfully he was blessed with a half- decent hand the next round, and managed to beat out the others, and made Harry loose his jacket. Luck was also on his side the hand after that, as he won and asked Louis to remove an item of clothing, unfortunately, he sat there and smugly removed his beanie. He was playing annoyingly well for someone who was smashed. When Harry next won he told Niall to take off this shirt, so he sighed and begrudgingly shrugged out of it. Liam tried so hard not to stare, and he probably would’ve succeeded, if he was sober.   
Niall noticed him staring and smirked, “Don’t be so scared Payno, it’s just a chest.”  
Just a chest. Liam thought, it may be but dear god! What a chest it is! The golden white skin, and the defined muscle, the way it made him look a few years older because of the scruffy hair. Niall went back to his cards, and Liam kept staring, unable to pull his head away from his new found glory in front of him.   
Niall sat there, facing his cards, watching Liam in his peripherals. His face was blank, but he just looked at him, with his eyes black. Niall wished he knew what was going on inside his head, and if he ever asked, Liam would never ever tell him. Because right now, he was thinking about what it would be like to pin the blond to the wall and kiss him until their lips bled, to trail kisses down his neck, leaving love bites in their wake. To run his hands over his sculpted chest, and to listen to him moan as he licks along his jaw. To have him whisper in his ear exactly what he wants Liam to do to him, and to let him have his way. But right now, he is also drunk.   
He skimmed his eyes off of Niall’s chest and back to his cards. These were not safe thoughts, but at this point he really didn’t care, because the thoughts were what he wanted most.   
A/N- Probably taking a short break from this in a poor attempt to finish another fanfic, for another fandom, but good news, I’ve finally figured out a solid storyline for this one. YAY!  
TheUsualSuspect xx


	7. Chapter 7- Little Conversations

Chapter 7- Little Conversations  
A/N- OH MY GOD! THIS TOWN! I JUST CAN’T. I BALLED MY EYES OUT LISTENING TO IT FOR THE FIRST TIME LIKE… HOLY FUCK!  
They had finally called quits on their game when Louis had started throwing up. He had Harry stayed with him whilst Niall and Liam went to bed. Liam knew he had had more than he should have had to drink, so he really wanted sleep, and, thankfully, it came quickly.   
His pupils were dark, filled with so much lust, telling him just how much he wanted it too. He wanted it so much, he wanted him so much. There was a flicker of emotion that passed through his eyes, when Liam pushed his body up against his, pinning him to the wall and bringing their lips closer together.   
Niall pulled his head off the wall and brought his lips to Liam’s, closing his eyes, before diving into the kiss with a full intensity that was returned completely. He fisted his hand in Liam’s shirt and pulled him down onto him further and further until his back hit the wall again. Liam put his hands on the wall to support himself from crushing the younger boy, as Niall’s hands crept down to the hem of his shirt.   
Liam’s tongue brushed past Niall’s lips, which, in return, Niall opened his mouth and let his tongue slip past his lips. Their heads turned to the sides, and their breathing became laboured, each of them searching for breath, but neither wanting to leave the other. Niall bit against Liam’s lip, which elicited a soft moan from the brunet, as his hands ran through Niall’s blond hair, pushing their lips impossibly closer.   
When Niall did get a lung full of air, he was met with the scent of Liam’s cologne cocktail, because he couldn’t just wear one, he had to wear multiple fragrances all thrown on together. He must have somehow gotten it down to an art, because right now he smelt like a mixture of liquorice spice and sweet sawdust. And oh god, did it smell incredible.   
He slipped his fingertips into the waistband of the blonde’s pants and stroked the skin on his hips in slow circles. His fingers were soft on his skin, a stark contrast to his mouth. They ate away hungrily, at each other. Tugging on clothing, and pulling at hair, as they continued to moan into each other’s mouths, pushing against each other’s bodies.  
Liam woke up in a hot sweat, as he rolled over to check the time, he noticed that the alarm clock screen was dark, he could also hear the rain and wind whipping relentlessly at his window. His room was cold, the AC clearly wasn’t on anymore, which meant that the power was off, a black out caused by the storm. There wasn’t anything he could do about that, except roll over, pull his covers up further, and go back to sleep.   
Only, he couldn’t, as much as he wanted sleep to take him under once again, it just didn’t work that way, because every time he closed his eyes, bits and pieces from his dream would burn on the backs of his eyelids, keeping the entire dream fresh in his mind. It scared him, the intensity and believability of the dream scared Liam. It was wrong. It was wrong on so many levels.   
Niall is his bandmate.   
Niall is his best friend.  
Niall is his colleague.  
Niall is his rock.  
Niall is not his lover.  
They had been friends for too long, and if they tried to take their platonic love, to a romantic love… Well it never works. The thing that got Liam, the thing that kept him up long enough to hear the rain calm to a drizzle, and the wind stop whipping at his windows, was the look in Niall’s eyes. He wanted it too. And also, the feel of their lips together was unimaginable, yet his brain could only conjure up such a sensation. He knew the real thing, the real feel of their lips together would make him want to reach for the stars, and would blur his mind into an infinite number of thoughts, feelings and memories. Liam was over taken by the intense desire to kiss him, his mind was dying for answers, it needed to know what his lips felt like underneath his own. That was what scared him more, and that he knew more than well that curiosity always kills the cat, and in this, he was definitely the cat. Eventually he fell back to sleep. Eventually he forgot about the black out. Eventually he dreamt another dream, but the other was not forgotten.   
\--  
Niall’s inebriated form took mere minutes to succumb to the trappings of sleep. Strip poker had been an interesting affair of events. The fact that Harry had, had enough to drink to agree to it was equally as startling. It started with Liam’s first shitty hand of cards and his rapid loss of clothing as Louis picked on him.   
When he woke in the morning the night before had unfortunately, but not surprisingly taken its toll on him. As he opened his eyes, everything was too bright. The dull grey colour escaping the curtains was too bright, the hall light from underneath his door was too bright. When he picked up his phone from the end of his bed it was too bright.   
Fuck.   
Regardless of how well he could hold his liquor, the next morning was always terrible. He didn’t plan on getting up all day, although he knew when he did that he would not be the only one stumbling down the hallway. His eyelids dragged themselves closed once again before he heard a knock on his door. Whoever it was, he didn’t want to talk to them right now, he wanted them to go away and to let him get another couple hours of sleep, and then only to return with movies and sustenance. The knock sounded again.   
“Agh,” he grumbled as he rolled over trying to block out the noise as it started up again.   
“Niall,” a voice spoke, he wedged his head under a stack of pillows and didn’t reply.  
“Niall, it’s Harry,” he spoke from beyond the door.   
He pulled the covers up over the stack of pillows, wanting to muffle Harry’s repeated knocks.  
“Niall,” Harry said again, louder.  
“Go away Harry,” Niall whined, breaking his silence, and bringing his head out from under his miniature fort.   
“I have food,” Harry replied simply.  
Niall let out a sigh, Harry knew how to win Niall over- they all did. That’s what close to six years of friendship does. Niall loves his food, and everybody knew that; hell, the fans probably knew it and if someone ever wanted something from him bad enough, all they had to do was bring him food, or promise him some Nandos. But then again, sleep was also a very good idea, best way to deal with the major hangover he knew he had.  
The knocks sounded again and as he moved as a slumped figure towards them, they seemed to amplify.  
He opened the door with a grim expression on his face to which Harry shoved a bag of food into his hands and then walked through the door. Niall took the bag graciously, before slowly walking back over to his bed, and snuggling underneath the covers.  
"What did you want to talk about Harry?" Niall mumbled into his pillows.  
He paced and ran a hand through his hair, "I think I'm doing something wrong," he started.  
"Yes, you're walking a straight line after getting smashed last night," Niall retorted.  
"No, I'm serious."  
Niall grumbled something incoherent as he rolled over and propped himself up on his pillows, and dug around in the paper bag, "croissants?" Niall questioned, "Nice."  
He took a bite, "I'm listening."  
Harry looked nervous, "You know the thing that happened between Louis and I a couple years back?"   
Niall nodded his head, "the whole shit pile with your.. um...," he hesitated, "relationship? And management."  
"Yes, he replied, "that."   
"Okay, what about it?"   
"Yesterday," he didn't know what to say or to keep to himself, "he kissed me. Actually before yesterday as well."  
"Oh," Niall said, very surprised," when?"  
"Before we performed when you guys couldn't find us, "he blushed, "and then I, I," he looked down at his hands and spoke quietly, "then I kissed him yesterday morning," Harry kept his stare focused towards his hands as he awaited Niall's response, but he quickly jumped in to get more off his chest, “God! I’d been trying for so long you know. To not act on my feelings towards him, to not get put us in the shit hole again, to not have to fight management, to just record, perform and chill with my friends, but I can’t because the pain never leaves, and the fans will always remind us of exactly what we can’t have,” he paused and took a breath, “do you know how hard that is?”   
Niall was speechless, his brain was in an information overload, trying to process everything Harry had just told him. There was a lot, and the hangover made the whole processing part slower.  
He thought. He thought about how he could best phrase his answer so that he sounded reassuring and compassionate, and not like a hungover ass.   
“I don’t know what that feels like, Haz. And I really hope I never do.” He hoped he sounded caring, “if I can help, just let me know.”  
“Just listening is good,” Harry answered quietly.   
“Glad to help a mate.”  
“Thanks.”  
“Well, with the right incentive I’ll do anything.”  
Harry gave a weak laugh at that.  
“Imagine what I’d do if someone gave me an entire buffet…”  
“You’d sit there and not let anyone else eat it.”  
“That’s after I’ve spent about a thousand years drooling over every single piece of food in that buffet and then some.”  
“Yeah, there’s no way that you’d just start eating.”  
“True.”  
Harry started laughing, clearly thinking of something.  
“What?”  
“What do you get when you cross a jogger with an apple pie?”  
“I don’t know, what do you get?” Niall asked.  
“Puff pastry.”  
Niall laughed, his body lurching forwards as he did so, his eyes crinkling as he threw his head back shaking it, “that’s so bad, Harry.”  
“Well, did you hear about the explosion at the cheese factory in France?” Harry asked.  
“No,” Niall responded.  
“All that was left was de brie.”  
He started laughing at his own terrible joke, and Niall joined in because, okay, that one was a little funny.  
“Okay, that one’s good I like that one.”  
“Yeah?”  
“Yeah, that one’s cool.”  
“You come across a lot of food jokes working in a Bakery,” Harry said, “a lot of dirty food jokes,” he clarified.  
“Oh god,” Niall said with a laugh, “like what?”  
“Do you also work at subway? Cause you’re giving me a foot long.”  
Niall just shook his head and took another bite of his croissant as Harry came and sat down on the end of his bed.  
“Oh, and there’s also ‘I’d let you butter my jam’ and ‘are you a burger? Cause I’d eat those buns.”  
“Oh god Harry, what kinds of people came into that little Bakery in Homes Chapel?”  
“Every kind, all kinds.”  
“Sounds interesting.”  
“It was, I mean this is much better, but sometimes I want a week back, before this. Because it’s all just too much right now,” Harry said curling up into a ball and resting his chin on his knees, he took a breath, and let it out shakily. Causing Niall to scoot up the bed and wrap an arm around Harry.   
“Any time you need to talk, mate,” Niall said, “I’m here.”  
“Yeah. Thanks,” Harry said, “You can’t tell Louis or Liam that we had this conversation.”  
“Yeah, of course.”  
“And you’re not supposed to know that we’re together yet.”  
“Okay, I can do that.”  
“Thank you,” Harry said, before standing up and saying, “I’ve got to go, Lou and I have an idea for a song that we’re working on, and I can tell by the look on your face that you want more sleep.”   
“Well, yeah. Hungover me is very tired always.”  
“I know.”  
“Hey, how come you aren’t hungover?”  
“I didn’t drink that much last night.”  
“Oh okay, I lost count of mine eventually. Bye Haz,” Niall said as Harry walked out the door and he snuggled back into the covers.  
A/N- TOOOO MUCH DRAMA IN THIS FANDOM RIGHT NOW! Louis' mum (rest in peace), his single, Niall's single + up and coming album, the DUNKIRK TRAILER!! Chiam baby rumors (no hate) and Zayn collaborating with Taylor Swift (again, no hate) But HOLY SHIT! Can everyone be drama free for three minutes please.  
All the love,  
TheUsualSuspect xx


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